Burwell: High court will uphold ObamaCare subsidies

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell expressed confidence Monday that the Supreme Court will rule for the administration in a challenge to premium tax credits distributed by federal health insurance exchanges.

Burwell, speaking during a visit to Dallas to promote open enrollment, said lawmakers wanted every eligible enrollee to receive subsidies, not just those in certain states.

{mosads}”The United States Congress did not intend that some states, and citizens of only some states, would benefit from this and residents of other states would not,” Burwell said, according to WOAI News in San Antonio. “This was not the intent of the law.”

The Supreme Court announced earlier this month that it will hear arguments in King v. Burwell, one of several cases in which plaintiffs argue that the federally run health insurance exchanges do not have the authority to distribute subsidies.

The administration contends that the subsidies from the exchanges are valid under the law.

Burwell also touted the HealthCare.gov enrollment site for functioning much better than it did last year. “We went from 10 days of testing to five weeks of testing, and having the insurers come in and do that,” she said of HHS’s preparations.

The event took place at New Creation Christian Fellowship Church in Windcrest, Texas.