Obamacare Lives, And Your Subsidy Is Safe

The Supreme Court ruled this morning 6–3 in favor of the Obamacare status quo, and as someone whose little family relies on the Obamacare status quo, I say, thank God.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected a major challenge to the Affordable Care Act, ruling that federal subsidies may be made available to individuals who live in states that did not set up their own health care exchanges. The 6–3 opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, and joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy and the more liberal justices. The decision is a major victory for the Obama Administration, which professed to have no backup plan should the court invalidate these subsidies. A decision against the ACA may well have devastated the law and its beneficiaries.

More background info, via Vox:

In King v. Burwell, health-law challengers argued that the federal exchange, Healthcare.gov, doesn’t have the legal authority to distribute Obamacare tax credits that help low and middle-income Americans purchase coverage. Since most states rely on Healthcare.gov as their Obamacare marketplace, a decision in favor of the challengers would have a sweeping impact.

In Obamacare’s first year, 34 states defaulted to Healthcare.gov, the federally-coordinated exchange. An estimated 87 percent of individuals who enrolled through the website are receiving subsidies — the precise subsidies that this court case calls into question.

That’s me! I’m in the 87%!

I live in one of the most expensive zip codes in America and am trying to make a living as a full-time writer while raising a toddler. My husband doesn’t get benefits from his work; neither do I. If it weren’t for the health insurance marketplace, and the subsidies that allow us to afford our very basic Bronze Level coverage, we would be sunk.

Even as things stand, we have a family deductible of around $12,000. Once we exceed that, our insurance kicks in to cover 50% of everything. That means, if I get pregnant, a second child could cost us $20,000+. We could probably buy an infant on Craigslist for less than that.

Well, one worry at a time. For now, the Affordable Care Act is safe, and neither Ben nor I has to get a “real” job. Huzzah!

In other Supreme Court news, a more divided decision upheld the idea that de facto housing discrimination is still illegal:

housing discrimination need not be intentional in order to be illegal.

The justices said legal objections to lending, zoning, sales and rental practices only need to show that they had a disparate impact on blacks or other minorities.

The court’s 5–4 decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, was an unlikely conclusion to a years-long effort by opponents of the civil rights-era law to reduce its effectiveness against housing policies and practices used by many builders, lenders and insurers. Twice before, the justices had agreed to hear a challenge to the law, only to see the cases withdrawn or settled before reaching court.

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