High Court shouldn’t have taken PPACA lawsuit, Obama says

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has said there would be no administrative fix to restore the subsidies. The average insurance premium for PPACA coverage would almost quadruple in states affected by the ruling.

Obama said there’s no back-up plan because he’s confident the court will rule in the administration’s favor.

“It’s a bad idea,” he said of outlawing subsidies in most states. “It’s not something that should be done based on a twisted interpretation of four words in, as we were reminded repeatedly, a couple-thousand-page piece of legislation.”

Proponents of the law worry that skyrocketing premiums would cause many people to drop their coverage, propelling insurance exchanges into what economists call a “death spiral.” Only the sickest and most desperate Americans would buy insurance, driving premiums ever higher.

‘I’m optimistic’

Obama said he has confidence the court, which has upheld other portions of the law, will again rule in favor of keeping the program intact. If not, he said he hopes Congress will enact legislation to retain the subsidies.

“I’m optimistic that the Supreme Court will play it straight when it comes to the interpretation,” he said. “If it didn’t, Congress could fix this whole thing with a one-sentence provision.”

That won’t happen, said John Barrasso of Wyoming, the fourth-ranking Republican in the Senate.

“Instead of bullying the Supreme Court, the president should spend his time preparing for the reality that the court may soon rule against his decision to illegally issue tax penalties and subsidies on Americans in two-thirds of the country,” he said in a statement. “Congress will not pass a so-called ‘one-sentence’ fake fix.”

—With assistance from Greg Stohr in Washington.