Press Release

Friday, November 7, 2014

Price Statement on Supreme Court’s Decision to Hear Challenge to Obamacare Subsidies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Tom Price, M.D. (GA-06) issued the following statement after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case – King v. Burwell – challenging whether the government can provide subsidies for the purchase of health care coverage from federally run exchanges in states that chose not to establish their own exchanges:

“The plain language of the law makes it clear that subsidies are only to be provided for the purchase of health coverage through exchanges setup by the states. Nevertheless, the Obama Administration and others are asking the courts to disregard the letter of the law and instead rule based on bureaucratic rewrites and revisions. Leave it to the folks who saw no reason to read the law before passing it to show little deference to what’s actually in it.

“Obamacare is doing real harm to American families. It’s driving up out-of-pocket costs for families, narrowing access to choices, and taxing innovation. But there’s also a larger principle under threat here which is the rule of law in this country. What good are our laws – even those we may believe are disastrous to the American people – if their substance can be unilaterally altered based on the whims of a White House aided by unaccountable regulators?

“Rather than continue to force the American people to live under a law that even its drafters and defenders seem incapable of implementing without illegal carve outs and caveats, let’s put in place real health care reform that puts patients, families and doctors in charge of health care decisions, not Washington.”

Congressman Price is the vice chairman of the House Budget Committee. An orthopaedic surgeon, he spent more than 20 years caring for patients. For three consecutive Congresses, he has introduced the Empowering Patients First Act (H.R. 2300).

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