November 08, 2014
The Washington Post fundamentally misrepresented the issues in a front page piece on the decision by the Supreme Court to hear a case contesting whether people in the federal exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) qualify for subsidies. The case stems from awkward wording in one part of the law that describes subsidies going to people in the exchanges created by the states. The opponents of the law argue this means that people enrolled in the exchanges created by the federal government are not eligible for subsidies.
While the piece points out that supporters say that the subsidies are an essential part of the ACA, it should have also pointed out that other parts of the law are clearly written as though subsidies would be paid out to be people in the exchanges created by the federal government. Their point is that when the law is read as a whole there is no ambiguity that subsidies are supposed to go to people in the federal exchanges.
In this respect it is also worth noting that when the Congressional Budget Office and other independent observers tried to project the cost of the ACA they all assumed that people in the federal exchanges would be getting subsidies. It seems that no one had any confusion about the intent of the law in this respect.
The Post should have clearly presented the legal argument of the supporters of the ACA.
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