Obamacare opponents should be careful what they wish for
“Obamacare is a train wreck, and that’s actually not fair to train wrecks.”
So said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at last week’s Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. It was a line that drew both applause and laughs, as you would expect from a gathering of folks who view the Affordable Care Act as an abomination.
Chances are that Cruz and his CPAC fans are hoping the Supreme Court will do what Congress has so far been unable to do, when the justices rule in a few months on King v. Burwell. That’s the lawsuit to be argued at the high court this week —the one arguing that the subsidies millions of people are getting in 34 states to help cover the cost of their health insurance are illegal. Cruz and others who despise Obamacare are hoping that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, what they consider a scourge on the nation will soon be eradicated.
But if there ever was a reason to cite the maxim, “be careful what you wish for,” it’s about this lawsuit. A Supreme Court decision that goes against Obamacare would lead to a train wreck with almost unimaginable consequences. And Republicans likely would get much of the blame.
Anyone who thinks such an outcome would usher in an era of a better functioning health insurance marketplace should read the amicus brief submitted by America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s largest trade group.
AHIP’s brief supports the government, not the plaintiffs. It paints a picture not of a new heaven on earth if the Supreme Court decides against the government, but of a health insurance apocalypse. Not everywhere, though, ironically. The marketplace meltdown would occur only in those 34 states, led primarily by Republican governors, like in Texas, that defaulted to the federal government to operate their health insurance exchanges.
Related: Sen. Ted Cruz at CPAC 2015
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Wendell Potter commentary. Former CIGNA executive-turned-whistleblower Wendell Potter writes about the health care industry and the ongoing battle for health reform. Click here to read more stories in this blog.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
