The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit could issue a ruling today in Halbig v. Burwell, one of four lawsuits challenging an Internal Revenue Service rule that effectively implements the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s exchange subsidies where the statute does not permit: in exchanges that were not “established by the State” — i.e., federal exchanges.
Tim Jost, Norman Ornstein, Avalere Health, the Urban Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and others who support the Obama administration’s position (we cannot say they support PPACA) predict much disruption if the courts rule against the administration.
Over at DarwinsFool.com, I have a new post explaining how Halbig would put an end to the disruption, which is much greater than they recognize:
In 2011, the Obama administration issued an IRS rule in which it unilaterally decided to tax, borrow, and spend billions of dollars. Treasury and IRS officials apparently knew they did not have statutory authority to do it. They did it anyway.
The impact of that IRS rule has been enormous. Insurers chose to participate in the PPACA’s Exchanges who otherwise would not have. Employers have reconfigured their health insurance benefits, eliminated jobs, and/or cut hours for perhaps millions of employees, including teaching assistants and restaurant workers, to comply with a mandate from which they are, by law, exempt. Millions of Americans are already paying penalties under, or have purchased coverage to comply with, an individual mandate from which they are, by law, exempt. Nearly 5 million Americans agreed to enroll in Exchange coverage with the promise of subsidies the Obama administration has no authority to offer to them, that could vanish with one court ruling or by regulatory fiat. With every unauthorized subsidy that flows from the IRS to private insurance companies, the federal debt rises above the level authorized by law, imposing an unauthorized tax burden on current and future generations.
The IRS rule has had a sweeping impact on the political process as well. It denied states—denied voters—the use of a policy lever Congress granted to them: the ability to veto the PPACA’s subsidies, employer mandate, and individual mandate. In effect, the rule disenfranchised voters in the 36 states that exercised those vetoes. Had the administration followed the law, those 36 vetoes would have led to changes in the PPACA, and possibly changes in Congress. Instead, the IRS rule altered the outcome of congressional votes and, likely, of congressional elections. Americans voted in 2012 as if there were not a gaping hole in the PPACA that would expose its full cost and destabilize its regulatory scheme. The IRS rule is still influencing congressional elections today. Potential candidates are deciding whether to enter the 2014 congressional races as if that gaping hole does not exist; as if the law Congress enacted were more popular and successful than it actually is…
The purpose of Halbig is to end the massive economic and political disruption caused by the president’s decision to ignore the clear statutory language he is sworn to uphold.
