Obamacare Subsidies Survive Supreme Court Scrutiny

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Thursday that the federal government has the legal right under the Affordable Care Act to provide subsidies to some 6.4 million Americans to purchase health insurance.

At issue was whether or not it was legal for the federal government to issue tax credits for people who buy healthcare insurance through the Obamacare exchange. Justices ruled the ACA does allow those tax credits.

The ruling, CNBC pointed out, avoids analysts’ “nightmare scenario” of individual plan prices skyrocketing for millions of Americans had the subsidies been deemed illegal.

The majority decision noted that “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not destroy them. If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter.”

Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito had the dissenting opinions.

Read the full ruling here.

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