Here is a video from CNN that outlines King v. Burwell, a new court case taken up by The Supreme Court of the United States, widely challenging Obamacare. If the Court upholds the challengers to the Affordable Care Act, people in the 34 states using healthcare exchanges established by the federal government will no longer be eligible for subsidies, essentially gutting the benefit of the ACA for most people.
The crux of the charge brought against the ACA is a single clause in the law, denoting that only people using exchanges set up by “the State” will be eligible for subsidy. The IRS and the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decided “the state” may refer to either the federal State or individual States, but the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the challenges.
Because four of nine Supreme Court justices must vote to hear a case, the Court is likely already sympathetic to the ACA challengers. As such, many now believe the deciding vote will come from Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., and depending on how he rules, this decision could be the most noteworthy of his career. According to Scotusblog, the Supreme Court is likely to hear this case in March, 2015.
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