ACA/Obamacare: Oops! Unauthorized Subsidies of the Made-up Political Authority Kind

‘A federal district court in Washington, D.C., ruled Thursday in favor of the U.S. House of Representatives’ challenge to the Obama administration’s implementation of part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The act has been “revised” dozens of times by the administration since its passage in March 2010, leading the House to sue over the administration’s payment out of the U.S. Treasury of subsidies to insurance providers for providing cost-sharing reductions to certain policyholders, even though Congress explicitly refused to appropriate funds for these subsidies.

As D.C. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer explained in an opinion last fall, Section 1402 of the law “requires insurers to reduce the cost of insurance to certain, eligible statutory beneficiaries,” and the “federal government then offsets the added costs to insurance companies by reimbursing them with funds from the Treasury.”

This section stated that cost-sharing offsets must be funded by annual appropriations. But the House has never appropriated funds for Section 1402, so it argued that the administration violated Article I, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution, which provides that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.’

‘Collyer was not concerned by the “cascading series of nonsensical and undesirable results” that the administration claimed would flow from failing to recognize a permanent appropriation for Section 1402: “Higher premiums, more federal debt, and decreased enrollment are not consequences of the [Affordable Care Act’s] text or structure,” Collyer explained, but rather those “would flow … from Congress’ continuing refusal to appropriate funds.” She concluded, “That is Congress’s prerogative; the Court cannot override it by rewriting [the statute].”

Collyer granted summary judgment to the House of Representatives, enjoining any “further reimbursements [to insurance companies] under Section 1402 until a valid appropriation is in place.” However, she stayed her injunction pending an appeal.’ - Obama Administration Loses Key Obamacare Case, dailysignal.com, 05/12/2016

Link to the entire article appears below:

http://dailysignal.com/2016/05/12/obama-administration-loses-key-obamacare-case/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTWpka05XVmpZalEzT0RnMiIsInQiOiJiMGhZK0o2K0dOY1Q3aXBKNWtCZGdjd3hJd0s0UEk2K0tJYVJTQ3plaVd0RzFPMXcwVFpLWDdxNDBMYnZ0dHNhbzVNWkcybGNuV0lDTTN6Rmp3WEtHclFUS2d0ajB2Q29GYzFyaDNpeFdtND0ifQ%3D%3D

Updated: 

Federal judge rules Obamacare is being funded unconstitutionally, Los Angeles Times, 05/13/2016

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-obamacare-court-ruling-20160512-snap-story.html