If there was one
consistent Obamacare theme for 2014, it was that Republicans were working hard on the goal of coming up with something coherent—that the tea partiers could stomach—to replace Obamacare. New year, new Congress, same
old story, but with a slightly new, Supreme Court, twist.
In March, the Supreme Court will hear another case that threatens subsidies that form a core of the Affordable Care Act. That has Republicans putting pressure on themselves to coalesce around a plan, drawing on ideas they’ve discussed for years such as tax credits to buy insurance, high risk pools and allowing insurance to be sold across state lines.
King v. Burwell is the most serious legal challenge to Obamacare since the justices upheld the individual mandate in 2012. If King prevails, subsidies could be abruptly cut off to millions of people in states relying on the federal health exchange. That financial assistance would be available in just the 13 states running their own exchanges.
That would be a calamity for the health law, a blow to the insurance industry and a hardship for the people whose tax credits would be cut off.
Or, more to the point:
Real GOP strategy: Leak stories about finding Obamacare alternative to convince SCOTUS there won't be chaos if they rule against law
— @igorvolsky
Republicans have to demonstrate to the Supreme Court—and particularly Chief Justice John Roberts—that if the court was to take subsidies away from millions of people who wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise, it won't be a horrible thing because there would be something else to fall back on. The problem for Roberts—and for House Speaker John Boehner and new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—is that enough congressional Republicans don't care if millions of people are uninsured. The tea party contingent, in particular, have no incentive at all for coming up with a viable replacement plan. Repeal has been the be all and end all for them. The chances that leadership can come up with something that both House and Senate Republicans will embrace and pass, are very slim.