Indiana is disputing the extension of Obamacare to state and local governments. This could cripple local governments already operating on a shoestring in many cases. But their argument is a good one from a legal point of view. If Obamacare is a tax, as has been found by the SCOTUS, federal government doesn’t have a right to tax state governments.
Via NYDN:
The Obamacare rollout has been a debacle, with delays in the implementation of mandates, technical glitches in the exchanges, cancelled individual policies and more.
It’s about to get worse. The federal judiciary is currently hearing four cases challenging decisions made by the Internal Revenue Service that could soon deliver more major blows to the Affordable Care Act.
One such decision extended subsidies provided by Obamacare for lower-income individuals and families (those making up to four times the povery level) to people in the 36 states served by the federally-operated exchange, HealthCare.gov.
But the law spells out clearly that such federal subsidies will be granted “through an exchange established by the state” – not that they can be granted by the federal government.