2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThe 5 GOP Presidential Hopefuls Most At Risk If SCOTUS Guts Obamacare
WASHINGTON It goes without saying that a Supreme Court ruling against Obamacare would be devastating for President Barack Obama, dealing a blow to his signature domestic achievement, as well as the millions of Americans who would no longer be able to afford health coverage. But it's not a zero-sum game.
The perils of a Court ruling to erase Obamacare subsidies in dozens of states extend to Republican governors who are eying the presidency in 2016.
The justices met Friday morning, two days after oral arguments in King v. Burwell, to cast their votes and whether to restrict health insurance tax subsidies to state-run exchanges, as opposed to the federal exchange.
Nearly every Republican governor refused to set up an exchange, under pressure from conservatives who described it as an embrace of Obamacare. A ruling against the subsidies could put health coverage out of reach for hundreds of thousands of middle-income constituents and risk sending their insurance markets into a "death spiral" as costs rise and healthier customers drop out.
Here are the top five Republican presidential hopefuls who would be harmed.
1. Scott Walker of Wisconsin
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2. Chris Christie of New Jersey
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3. John Kasich of Ohio
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4. Susana Martinez of New Mexico
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5. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana
Full article:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/presidential-hopefuls-obamacare-supreme-court
Tom Rinaldo
(22,919 posts)They might back restoring subsidies for those who got insurance with them for a transition period of time, like, oh I don't now, until after the 2016 election is over. I saw mention in one piece that the Supreme Court could gut Obamacare but include "a stay" that would, in theory, give Congress time to fix it. In reality it would just give Republicans running for office in 2015 a chance to try to duck the political fallout from throwing millions of Americans off of their health insurance plans that they could no longer afford.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,454 posts)But why do we have to wait until June for their ruling?