Advocates say Supreme Court decision on healthcare law could cause chaos

Advocates for the Affordable Care Act in Ohio say nothing less than the fate of health care coverage across the state is at stake Wednesday with a case being argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A ruling against federal subsidies for people in states like Ohio that do not have their own health insurance exchanges would have an impact on insurance for all, in every state, as people dropped off insurance rolls and premium prices increased across the board, said Cathy Levine, executive director of UHCAN Ohio, an advocacy group that has helped thousands of people sign up for health insurance.

And Ohio could find itself powerless to address the issue, if one constitutional lawyer is correct. If the state tries to act, it likely would prompt a lawsuit.

An amendment to the Ohio Constitution approved by voters in 2011 prevents the state from trying to enact its own insurance exchange, said Maurice Thompson, executive director of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law.

Thompson’s organization backed the amendment, which was drafted in response to Obamacare.

The amendment, Thompson said, bars the state from using its resources to compel enforcement of Obamacare. Creating a state exchange would do just that, he said, by prompting fines for certain businesses that did not provide health care coverage to employees.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday on King v. Burwell, a case that addresses a narrow question: Does Obamacare allow the government to give subsidies to help people pay premiums for individual and family policies in the 34 states that did not set up their own computerized sales networks, or state-based “exchanges?”

The question arises from a dispute over the law’s wording. The plaintiffs argue that the law says that tax credits, or subsidies, are only available for buyers who get their health insurance from state exchanges. Ohio and 33 other states that did not establish these exchanges piggybacked on a federal exchange, known as HealthCare.Gov.

In Ohio about 234,000 people bought their insurance through the federal exchange, with about 84 percent qualifying for tax credits, Levine said Tuesday at a news conference. A ruling for the plaintiffs would put their insurance in doubt.

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