Obama defends lack of 'Plan B' for ACA court case
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(Reuters) — President Barack Obama on Monday said he thinks there is no “plausible legal basis” for the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a key plank of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, defending his administration's lack of a contingency plan.
And he promised to rule on the Keystone XL pipeline before he leaves office, although he would not say whether it will take him “weeks or months” to determine whether the project is in the national interest.
Obama touched on two main domestic policy issues during an interview with Reuters.
On the Affordable Care Act, his signature policy achievement, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on Wednesday in the case known as King v. Burwell.
The case challenges wording in the 2010 law that could affect whether residents in at least 34 U.S. states are eligible for federal tax subsidies to help them buy insurance.
“Look, this should be a pretty straightforward case of statutory interpretation,” Mr. Obama said.
“If you look at the law, if you look at the testimony of those who are involved in the law, including some of the opponents of the law, the understanding was that people who joined a federal exchange were going to be able to access tax credits just like if they went through a state exchange,” he said.
“There is, in our view, not a plausible legal basis for striking it down,” he said.
If the Supreme Court disagrees, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell has told lawmakers that there are no contingency plans to deal with the loss of subsidies.
“If they rule against us, we'll have to take a look at what our options are. But I'm not going to anticipate that. I'm not going to anticipate bad law,” Mr. Obama told Reuters.
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