Earnest: Plaintiffs in King v. Burwell ObamaCare Case Taking Words ‘out of Context’

"I think we can all acknowledge that anybody who has been following this issue that it's not easy to set up these exchanges; that it takes a lot of expertise and it takes a lot of work; the technology is obviously complicated. And the fact is we've gone to great lengths to make that technology work and we do have a system that is now in place where no one is discriminated against because they have a preexisting condition. Nobody is discriminated against in healthcare system because they are a woman. 11 million people have signed up for the Affordable Care Act. We have seen that the growth in healthcare costs in the lowest it's been in more than 50 years. 

So the system as it is currently constructed is working really well and it has made a difference in the lives of millions of Americans who are getting their health insurance through the market place. But it is also making a difference in the lives of millions of Americans who get their health insurance through their employer; that they are equipped with these kinds of consumer's protections that didn't previously exist that ensure that they have a voice and that they have rights to be protected when they are dealing with their health insurance company. Some of those rights would be eroded too. 

But again if we are in the situation where we undermine the exchanges, we can't be in a position of suggesting that people need to sign up for health insurance because they wouldn’t be able to afford it. And if that's the case then we no longer have a mandate and that means we go back to the situation in which individuals can be discriminated against because they have preexisting condition. So this is a fundamental part of the Affordable Care Act and it’s one that's at risk because of the arguments that are being made by one side in this argument. 

But again, the solace that we take from this and that everybody who is watching at home should take from this, is that the law is really clear, that you have you have to really take four words entirely out of context in a 900-page law to contort it to mean what the plaintiffs in this case want it to mean. But the fact of the matter is, it has been clear from the beginning, throughout the congressional debates that what the law envisioned was that every American in all 50 states would be eligible to collect tax credits to make their health insurance more affordable if they qualify."