Mitch Perry
In Germany on Monday, President Barack Obama brushed off any concerns about what will happen if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell this month.
More than a million Floridians (and 6 million Americans overall) are vulnerable to losing their health insurance if the court rules against the Obama administration. The decision would mean that patients in states like Florida that did not create their own health care exchanges would no longer receive subsidies.
Obama said it was an “easy case” for the Court to resolve and questioned why it was even up for consideration by the highest court in the land to start with.
“What I can tell state leaders is, is that under well-established precedent, there is no reason why the existing exchanges should be overturned through a court case,” Obama said when asked about it. “It has been well documented that those who passed this legislation never intended for folks who were going through the federal exchange not to have their citizens get subsidies. That’s not just the opinion of me; that’s not just the opinion of Democrats; that’s the opinion of the Republicans who worked on the legislation. The record makes it clear.”
Meanwhile, a new survey released shortly before the president made those comments shows wide support for a fix if the Supreme Court rules with the Republicans on the ACA lawsuit. Sixty-two percent of voters want Congress to fix the law to ensure that all Americans continue to be eligible for the same health insurance subsidies regardless of the state where they live. That’s a bipartisan sentiment: Democrats (76/21), independents (57/33), and Republicans (50/38) all want Congress to act to make sure no one loses their subsidies.
The results came from a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling late last week that was paid for by the group AmericansUnitedForChange.org.
Here are some other key findings from the study:
Voters across party lines think everyone should be eligible for the same subsidies no matter the state where they live. Democrats (74/20), independents (56/38), and Republicans (49/41) all subscribe to that outlook.
A majority of voters nationally don’t want anyone to have their health insurance subsidies taken away: Only 37 percent are OK with 6.5 million people losing their subsidies while 51 percent don’t think they should. That includes a majority of independent voters who stand against eligible recipients losing their subsidies.
Acting to fix the Affordable Care Act and make sure that no one loses their affordable care is a big winner politically. Sixty-two percent of voters say they would be more likely to cast their ballot for an official who voted to ensure that everyone at similar income levels would be eligible to receive the same subsidies regardless of the state they live in, compared with only 28 percent who say they’d be less likely to vote someone who supported that fix.
Although most sitting members of Congress are re-elected on a regular basis every two years, PPP suggests that GOP members of Congress could be vulnerable if they don’t enact a fix to make sure no one loses their current subsidies. Forty-one percent of voters said they would be less likely to vote for a Republican who didn’t vote to fix the Affordable Care Act, compared with only 31 percent who say they’d be more likely to support the same candidate.
Public Policy Polling surveyed 530 registered voters on June 4 and 5 on behalf of Americans United For Change. The survey’s margin of error is +/-4.3 percent.
