Today’s court ruling gutting the essential tax credits offered under Obamacare relies on a literal reading of one provision of the Affordable Care Act. It seems almost certain that the provision in question suffered from a drafting error.
As we reported earlier this year, those who were in the room as the bill was being written say it was never anyone’s intention to limit the tax credits to state-run exchanges. In fact there’s no compelling rationale for why Congress would have sought to treat the two exchanges differently for tax purposes. The provision was just drafted poorly.
In ordinary circumstances, Congress would just fix the error. But these are not ordinary times.
