Health chief predicts ObamaCare will win at the Supreme Court

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said Monday she is confident that ObamaCare subsidies will survive Supreme Court review.

{mosads}“As we go into open enrollment, the most important thing for consumers to know is that nothing has changed,” Burwell said during a discussion held by the Center for American Progress. The remarks are her first public comments since the court decided to take up the case, King v. Burwell, on Friday.

The case centers on the constitutionality of Affordable Care Act subsidies in states operating on the federal government’s insurance exchange. Those subsidies have already gone into effect for nearly 5 million people, and could reach up to 7.4 million by 2016.

Healthcare experts have warned that the case could gut the core of ObamaCare, with at least $36 billion in subsidies at stake, but Burwell said she is not worried.

“I think the administration has been clear all along that we believe that was the intention of the law and that is where we will stay,” she said.

The decision to hear the case came at a difficult time for the Obama administration, which will launch its second year of open enrollment on Saturday.



The White House released a statement hours after the court decided to take up the case offering an assurance for people planning to sign up next week that “nothing has changed” and “tax credits and affordable coverage remain available.”

With the court’s decision not coming until next spring, experts say the waiting period could throw ObamaCare into flux ahead of its second full year of implementation.