Consumers Await Court Decision That Could Threaten Their Coverage
If the Supreme Court strikes down the federal subsidies in states using the federal insurance marketplace, the financial assistance that has made insurance premiums more affordable could disappear for more than 6 million people.
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
How A Court Ruling Could Create Health Care Chaos
Barbara Butler takes home $250 a week for driving a school bus with blind children to a Catholic day school part time. Her health insurance premiums are $517 a month. She pays 76 cents, and Washington picks up the rest. The Supreme Court is expected to rule within a week on whether that subsidy, a key part of President Obama's health-care law, is legal in 34 states. If it decides not, then the West Philadelphia resident's premiums would swell to half her income. (Sapatkin, 6/22)
The Columbus Dispatch:
Losing Obamacare Subsidies Might Change Ohioans’ Insurance Choices
Kay Arthur moved to Dublin from West Virginia to become the full-time caregiver to her 91-year-old mother. After her husband’s death in October 2012, Arthur briefly retained health insurance through his employer. But when that coverage ended, a pre-existing health condition threw up hurdles to finding a new health plan. So she turned to the new federally run health-insurance marketplace and found a policy with a $2,500 deductible. A $182-per-month tax credit made her premium more affordable.
Arthur, 63, is one of more than 161,000 Ohioans at risk of losing tax credits worth more than $41 million per month. Sometime in the next two weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court could strike down those subsidies flowing to 6.4 million people in Ohio and 33 other states that refused to establish their own marketplaces — known as exchanges. (Sutherly and Torry, 6/22)
