Dueling Court Rulings, But Financial Help for ACA Insurance STILL Available

It was a busy day for health care in a couple courtrooms today. But Texans can rest assured that financial assistance is still available for the insurance they bought on healthcare.gov; their insurance hasn’t been affected; and financial help should still be available to buy insurance when open enrollment for healthcare.gov starts again on November 15th.

So what happened?

Today the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) does not authorize the financial subsidies that consumers have used to buy health insurance on healthcare.gov in Texas and other states that did not set up their own online health insurance marketplaces.

A couple hours later, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals contradicted the earlier ruling by concluding in a separate case that the subsidies are perfectly legal.

The ACA, the health insurance that over 700,000 Texans bought through the federal Marketplace, and those financial subsidies all remain untouched as the case works its way through the appeals process.

Most observers expect the subsidies will be upheld as the case moves forward.

You can follow the blow-by-blow here.

And if you’re thinking about getting health insurance on healthcare.gov when open enrollment starts again in November, you can calculate here just how much financial assistance you can receive to make sure your insurance policy is affordable.

 Written by Peter Clark, Texans Care for Children.