The Obama administration is washing its hands of responsibility for any problems with Obamacare's subsidies, which are under challenge now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court, expected to announce its ruling any day, will determine whether federal subsidies for Obamacare policies can legally be paid to consumers who get insurance through the federal exchange, since the actual wording of the law allows subsidies only through exchanges established by the states.
In a hearing held Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said, "If the court says that we do not have the authority to give subsidies, the critical decisions will sit with the Congress and states and governors to determine if those subsidies are available."
She was being questioned by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who asked at one point, "You're not going to answer my question, are you?"
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He was trying to find out whether, should the Supreme Court strike the Obamacare practice of distributing subsidies to customers of the federal exchange, Obama would be willing to work with Congress on a solution, or whether he would demand a one-sentence fix.
The issue is critical since Congress has wanted for a long time to amend Obamacare. Now, however, to save the entire Obamacare package, the president might be forced to sign a law making changes, opening the door for Republicans to make other changes.
Ryan said as much at the hearing, explaining that both the individual mandate requiring people to buy government-mandated insurance and the employer mandate have received strong opposition from the American people.
"I got to tell you it's not real popular," he said. "We would like to free people from some of these mandates."
Burwell said the administration would be doing "everything we can" to "work with states" should the Obamacare provision but upheld as written and consumers working through federal exchanges lose their subsidies.
But she didn't answer when Ryan asked: "Is the president going to stand up and say, 'I have a one-page bill. I have a one-sentence fix. Take it my way or the highway'? Is that going to be the administration's position?"
Burwell responded that she thinks "it's important to reflect the marketplace is a market."
"It uses private insurers," she said.
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Fox News reported Republican congressional leaders "say they are preparing for the possibility that a huge chunk of the subsidies could be invalidated."
"While Obama would want Congress to simply tweak the law to allow for subsidies to cover Americans in all exchanges, it's unclear whether the congressional response would be that simple."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said earlier, "Depending on what the Supreme Court decides, we will have a proposal that protects the American people from a very bad law."
The ripple effect could be significant. Nearly three dozen states have their residents use the federal website and millions could lose subsidies, which they receive as tax credits. The price increase, estimated at nearly 300 percent for some, could force them to drop health coverage they would find too expensive.
The Associated Press projected that the collapse of the Obamacare subsidy system would put pressure on the GOP instead of the Democrats, who were the only ones to vote for the law.
The AP said that 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."
Of those 34 states most likely to be most affected, 26 have GOP governors. And 22 of the 24 GOP senators up for re-election next year are from those same states.
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