HHS Chief: Congress Must Fix Obamacare If Supreme Court Unravels Law

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Wednesday if the Supreme Court unravels federal subsidies in the Affordable Care Act it will be up to Congress and the states to come up with a new plan.

Burwell said the Obama administration would do “everything” it can to communicate with states should the court decide against the government in the King v. Burwell case.

The Supreme Court will decide King v. Burwell later this month, weighing whether enrollees in the health care program may purchase subsidies through the federal exchange—or just those using state-run exchanges.

“The critical decisions will sit with the Congress and states and governors to determine if those [federal] subsidies are available,” Burwell told the House Ways and Means Committee in a contentious hearing.

The plaintiffs in the case argue the Affordable Care Act’s current wording only allows the purchase of federal subsidies in state exchanges.

“We believe we are implementing the law as it was written, as it was intended,” Burwell said.

Dan Holler, the communications director for Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of The Heritage Foundation, refuted Burwell’s assertion, pointing to Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber’s acknowledgment that the goal of state exchanges was to “coerce states.”

“The Obama administration routinely ignores the law as drafted and intended,” Holler said.

If the Supreme Court rules against the government, Burwell said President Obama would sign alternative legislation solely if it improves “affordability, quality and access.”

House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said regardless of what the Supreme Court decides it is clear the president’s health care law is “busted” and that “no quick fix can change this fact.”

Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., sternly fired back.

“What’s busted is not ACA, but your attacks on it,” he said. “Endless attacks and never coming up with a single comprehensive alternative all these years. So you are armchair critics while millions have insurance who never had it before.”