Congress may have to deal with health care tax credits

WASHINGTON – It will be up to Congress and the states to respond should the Supreme Court annul federal subsidies that are a cornerstone of President Barack Obama’s health care law, the administration’s top health official told Congress on Wednesday.

In her remarks to the Republican-run House Ways and Means Committee, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell underscored the administration’s effort to keep pressure on the GOP should that financial assistance be struck down. Republicans run Congress, and 26 of the 34 states likely to be most affected if the subsidies are voided have GOP governors.

Republicans pushed back, chiding the administration for a lack of cooperation, in a hearing that illustrated how Obama’s 5-year-old law remains a partisan flashpoint, likely to reverberate through next year’s presidential and congressional elections.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on a lawsuit by conservatives asserting that the subsidies that help millions afford health care are legal only in states running their own insurance market places.

In the 34 states using the federal HealthCare.gov website that are expected to be hardest hit if the aid is invalidated, 7.3 million people have signed up for coverage and made initial payments. Of those, about 88 percent – 6.4 million people – receive federal subsidies averaging $272 monthly.

Should the court annul the aid, “The critical decisions will sit with Congress, the states and governors to determine if those subsidies are available,” Burwell said.

The subsidies are disbursed to recipients as tax credits. Should they be eliminated, millions of people could be forced to drop health coverage they’d find too expensive.

Top House and Senate Republicans have been working privately toward legislation restoring aid to those losing it until sometime in 2017. It would also eliminate parts of the health overhaul, such as its requirement that companies insure workers.

Republican lawmakers say they will unveil their plan once the justices rulean.