The stakes are high for women who make up a majority of marketplace plan enrollees.
Plaintiffs in the King vs. Burwell
case argue that a section of the Affordable Care Act says the tax
credits can only go toward coverage purchased “through an exchange
established by the State.”
If the plaintiffs prevail and tax
credits are disallowed in the 34 states, millions of
Americans could immediately find their insurance unaffordable and
subsequently drop coverage.
The majority of those coverage losses
would likely fall on women. Females probably account for 54 percent of
the 8.6 million marketplace plan members in the 34 states that rely on
the federal exchange at HealthCare.gov.
And national trends
suggest that roughly 87 percent of these women, nearly 4.2 million,
receive tax credits that could be lost if the Supreme Court decides that
the subsidy is illegal.
Losing their coverage means they no
longer would benefit from consumer protections in the health law that
outlawed discrimination against women in the individual insurance
market.
The high court is expected to decide in June whether to continue the tax
credits for those who live in the 34 states where the
federal government operates the health insurance marketplace.
No comments:
Post a Comment