Supreme Court rules for insurers over $12 billion Obamacare claims
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Reuters6 hrs agoLawrence Hurley
© Joe Raedle/Getty Images/File Pedro Rojas holds a sign directing people to an insurance company where they can sign up for the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, before the February 15th deadline on February 5, 2015 in Miami, Florida. WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of health insurers seeking $12 billion from the federal government under a program set up by the Obamacare law aimed at encouraging them to offer medical coverage to previously uninsured Americans.
The 8-1 ruling authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor paves the way for a significant one-time cash infusion for major companies such as Humana Inc, Anthem Inc and Centene Corp. The justices reversed a lower court's ruling that Congress had suspended the government's obligation to make such payments.
The insurers had said that the lower court ruling, if allowed to stand, would have let the government pull a "bait-and-switch" and withhold money the companies were promised.
Moda Health Plan Inc and other insurers that sued to try to compel the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make the payments have said the government was supposed to help them recover from early losses they suffered after the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) under Democratic former President Barack Obama.
The law, dubbed Obamacare, has enabled millions of Americans who previously had no medical coverage to obtain insurance, including those with pre-existing medical conditions.
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... so if the poor can't pay, and the congressional cronies won't pay, who's left?
So essentially, the GoP tried to defund the ACA and it went to the SCOTUS after opposite rulings in the lower courts.
Alito was the sole dissenter who wanted to have more another hearings next year and favored "not bailing out" the insurance industry.
8 to 1 the justices agreed that the government owes the obligations, handing the Trump Administration a defeat.
It's not called "Trumpcare".....
I am so sorry JRiNC, there is no such thing as Trumpcare
( yet, although it was one of the many promises candidate Trump promised and continues to promis just as soon as someone cane figure out how to kill the ACA - this plan failed, again ))
However, like almost all Administrations, the DoJ takes sides in government related cases,
almost always following the direction of the sitting President, who in this case,
is very much against the ACA and would have danced on it's grave had the court ruled the other way.
The DoJ was arguing that the government did not need to pay the existing debts because Obamacare was flawed.
Scotus put that charade to rest today. We pay our debts, no matter how inconvenient.
OK - JMHO - SCOTUS has just opened the doors for multi-lawsuits against the insurance companies for NOT insuring as required under ACA.
Gonna be a wild ride Charlie Brown.