Royal Oakes was quoted in a Jan. 5th, 2014, Business Insurance article, Lawsuits Over Health Exchange Premium Subsidies Challenge Heart of Reform Law, by discussing a pair of lawsuits aimed at limiting availability of premium subsidies for health care coverage purchased through certain public exchanges.
In both cases, one filed in 2011 and another in May of 2013, the plaintiffs argue that the IRS decision to include the federal exchanges in the subsidy program improperly exposes employers in states that have declined to establish their own public exchanges to penalties from which they otherwise would have been shielded.
So far, Judges in both cases have denied the government's request for summary dismissal of the suits. Legal experts have warned that a ruling against the government would hinder the government’s ability to enforce minimum coverage requirements for employers and individuals in states that refuse to establish insurance exchanges and essentially, will cut-off access to subsidized coverage for lower-income, uninsured adults in those states.
When coupled with the enormous complication caused by the cancellation of millions of insurance policies, the subsidy issue has the potential to accomplish indirectly what the law's staunchest critics have hoped to accomplish in Congress, which is a repeal,” said Royal Oakes.
