Court Grants House GOP Request To Delay Its Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. leaves a caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015. Ryan, seeking unity in a place it's rarely found, is telling House Republicans he will serve as their speaker on... Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. leaves a caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015. Ryan, seeking unity in a place it's rarely found, is telling House Republicans he will serve as their speaker only if they embrace him by week's end as their consensus candidate. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) MORE LESS
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A federal appeals court will delay action on a House GOP lawsuit that aimed to take away subsidies the federal government grants to insurance companies to provide coverage to low-income Americans.

House Republicans asked for the delay after they won the House, the Senate and the White House in the November election and repealing the Affordable Care Act legislatively appeared to be within reach.

As TPM has previously reported, how the Trump administration and House Republicans work out the cost-sharing payments that are the focus of the lawsuit could be an early tell of how aggressive the administration will be in dismantling Obamacare.

The Huffington Post reported the decision Monday.

House Republicans filed their lawsuit in 2014 as the latest in a string of conservative legal challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The House GOP argued that President Barack Obama’s health care law violated the Constitution because it appropriated the subsidies without Congress’ approval. Under the Affordable Care Act, the government helps offset the cost insurers incur when they cover low-income Americans.

A federal district judge ruled in favor of the House Republicans, and the case was on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The lawsuit would have affected 7 million individuals, the Huffington Post reported. Experts argued that if the lawsuit were successful, it could throw the individual insurance marketplace into a tailspin as insurers may have pulled out.

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  1. So now they are running around defusing they own bombs? Hopefully they’ll trip a booby-trap that they’ve forgotten about.

  2. Ryan: I want to withhold funding but need to ensure the blame goes to Democrats. People should suffer while blaming democrats.
    FOX: Republikan Jesus wouldnt have it any other way.

  3. I’m still trying to figure out how the House GOP has standing to challenge a duly enacted law. I mean, where’s the injury? So a Dem challenge to gerrymandering by Repubs to keep Dems out of power is a political question, but a Repub challenge to a law they voted against in the minority is ok?

    Strange.

  4. A federal appeals court will delay action on a House GOP lawsuit that aimed to take away subsidies the federal government grants to insurance companies to provide coverage to low-income Americans.

    LOL.

    GOP, pre-11/8: We must sabotage Obamacare. Damn the collateral damage.

    GOP, post-11/8: We must pretend to sabotage Obamacare, but we gotta bribe the insurance companies so our pretend sabotage doesn’t become real.

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