Stuart M. Gerson, a Member of the Firm in the Litigation and Health Care & Life Sciences practices, in the firm's Washington, DC, and New York offices, was quoted in AIS Health, in “Stage Set for Latest ‘Do or Die’ Supreme Court Decision on ACA,” by Patrick Connole.
Following is an excerpt:
“These are just the people the insurance companies want in the pool to avoid adverse selection. If they are not in the pool, if they don't buy insurance, that is a problem. Insurance rates will go up just by the virtue of the fact the universe will contain older, less healthy people. I think insurers know what is going on. They are on the side of the administration, but there is little they can do to influence the outcome,” he says.
Gerson says while he doesn’t expect a court decision against FFE subsidies to drive out health plans from marketplaces, premiums would definitely change. “It is going to be a sloppy situation,” he adds.
He said he senses that the administration is scrambling before the ruling by suggesting Congress could fix the situation by simply adding four words to the ACA that would allow subsidies on FFEs. But a solution in the politically charged legislature is not in the offing. Gerson also pointed to comments by President Obama recently that the disorder a negative decision would create should prevent the justices from negating the FFE subsidies. But this, he stresses, is not how things work. “Of course that is not what the court does. The court is going to try to follow the law and not focus on external matters,” Gerson says.