Frank Knapp Jr., CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, called the ruling a great victory for small businesses, adding that with fewer uninsured people, the hidden tax on premiums to pay for the care of those without coverage is lower.
“Affordable health insurance has been a top issue for small businesses since the ’90s,” he said. “The Affordable Care Act addressed the problem by making health insurance affordable to individuals through premium subsidies and small businesses through tax credits. As a result, our small businesses have healthier employees and workers are less stressed about the financial consequences of needing healthcare without having insurance.”
The Greenville News
June 26, 2015
By Liv Osby
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that federal subsidies to help people purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act will continue in all states, including South Carolina.
The ruling in King v. Burwell means that 154,221 of the 170,948 South Carolinians enrolled in Obamacare will be able to keep their subsidies, and their insurance.
The suit had argued that language in the ACA meant that only states that set up their own health care exchanges could offer subsidies. South Carolina consumers, along with those in 33 other states, use the federal exchange.
But the court ruled 6-3 that the subsidies can be offered in both exchanges, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that the tax credits “are necessary for the Federal Exchanges to function like their State Exchange counterparts, and to avoid the type of calamitous result that Congress plainly meant to avoid.”
“Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them,” he added.
Roberts was joined in the majority opinion by justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor. Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
The ruling pitted supporters against detractors, often along party lines, with Republicans vowing to continue their attempts to repeal Obamacare.
Sue Berkowitz, executive director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, said that if the ruling had gone the other way, millions of people would have lost their subsidies and been at risk of losing their coverage. Furthermore, she said, insurance markets would have been destabilized.
“Now that the Supreme Court has ruled,” she added, “instead of trying to undermine the law, opponents of health reform in Congress should accept that (it) is here to stay and stop putting forth misguided proposals that would undermine its success … and now work to make sure that it succeeds in providing access to affordable coverage for as many people as possible.”
Frank Knapp Jr., CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, called the ruling a great victory for small businesses, adding that with fewer uninsured people, the hidden tax on premiums to pay for the care of those without coverage is lower.
“Affordable health insurance has been a top issue for small businesses since the ’90s,” he said. “The Affordable Care Act addressed the problem by making health insurance affordable to individuals through premium subsidies and small businesses through tax credits. As a result, our small businesses have healthier employees and workers are less stressed about the financial consequences of needing healthcare without having insurance.”
The South Carolina Hospital Association said it was encouraged by the decision, adding that “we continue to seek a solution for the 200,000 working poor citizens who fall into the state’s coverage gap and make too little money to qualify for a health subsidy.”
Ron Pollack, executive director of the consumer group Families USA, called the decision monumental, adding that the ACA overcame more than 50 Congressional repeal votes and two Supreme Court challenges.
“The Affordable Care Act has provided coverage to 16 million Americans who did not have it before,” he said. “They will now have the peace of mind knowing their health coverage will not be taken away, and they will continue to receive financial help to keep premiums affordable.”
Pollack said the ACA resulted in a record low rate of uninsured Americans, and that it’s now time “for the law’s proponents and opponents to stop fighting and work together to further improve our health care system.”
And the American Medical Association said the decision will allow millions of patients to continue to get health care without fear of bankruptcy should they amass high medical bills.
But Gov. Nikki Haley said “Obamacare continues to be a disaster for our health care, our economy, and our budget.”
“In South Carolina,” she said, “we will continue to work around it as best we can, finding better ways to make health care more affordable and give patients more choices. I continue to support our federal delegation’s efforts to replace this terrible law.”
U.S. Senator and Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, R-SC, said the case wound up in the Supreme Court because President Obama “and his Democratic allies in Congress rammed through their hastily and deeply flawed legislation to create Obamacare, apparently without even proofreading their own bill.”
“Today’s decision only reinforces why we need a president who will bring about real reform that repeals Obamacare and replaces it with a plan that expands consumer choice, increases coverage, delivers better value for the dollar, and gives states more control, without stifling job creation,” he said. “As president, this is the kind of reform I would put in place.”
And U.S. Senator Tim Scott, R-SC, said he strongly disagreed with the ruling.
“I will continue working to return our health care system to doctors and their patients instead of leaving it in the hands of government bureaucrats,” he said. “This includes working towards the repeal and replacement of Obamacare, as well as the passage of the bipartisan PACE Act, which I introduced to protect small and mid-sized businesses and their employees from significant premium increases.”
State Attorney General Alan Wilson said the Court interpreted the law in “the broadest and most abstract way possible in order to save a broken government-run healthcare system.”
“I agree with Justice Scalia, as he stated in his dissenting opinion, ‘Today’s opinion changes the usual rules of statutory interpretation for the sake of the Affordable Care Act,’ ” he said. “I hope this Congress will seek the opportunity to pass health care reforms which allow states to develop market-based solutions in order to provide citizens with access to the quality, affordable healthcare they deserve.”
Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-SC, said the ruling left him “incredibly upset.”
“Any rational person who would see this as an obvious conflict in law, the Supreme Court yet again invented absurd reasoning to give the President what he wanted,” he said. “Though I’m incredibly upset, this will not deter my continued fight for liberty. This must start with the full repeal of Obamacare.”