WASHINGTON — Congress and the states will need to find an answer if the Supreme Court strikes down the federal subsidies that are a foundation of President Barack Obama’s health care law, his health secretary told lawmakers Wednesday.
Sylvia Burwell also said the president would reject any of the current GOP proposals because they would roll back crucial elements of the overhaul, in effect repealing it.
“Something that repeals the Affordable Care Act is something the president will not sign,” she said.
Burwell’s comments to the House Ways and Means Committee marked a continuation of the Obama administration’s efforts to pressure Republicans should the justices, in a case expected to be decided this month, void subsidies that help millions afford health insurance.
The GOP runs Congress, and 26 of the 34 states likely to be hit hardest by such a decision have Republican governors.
In addition, 22 of the 24 GOP senators up for re-election next year are from those 34 states.
Many Republican strategists have said the party would face retribution from voters in next year’s elections if the subsidies are eliminated and Congress does not advance legislation protecting the millions of people who would be hurt.
The case before the Supreme Court involves a Republican-backed challenge by conservatives to the 5-year-old health law.
The lawsuit says the law limits the subsidies to people in states that run their own insurance marketplaces — and not to residents of the 30-plus states that use the federal website.
The committee chairman, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., asked Burwell about how the administration would respond to a decision that tossed out the subsidies.
“We’re going to do everything we can, and we’re working to make sure we’re ready to communicate and work with states,” Burwell said.
But she added: “The critical decisions will sit with Congress and states and governors to determine if those subsidies are available.”
Her comments were a more pointed version of previous administration statements that it is not preparing a contingency plan for a decision that erases the subsidies, which are paid as tax credits.
Her testimony and the partisan remarks it prompted showed the law remains a high-octane political issue destined to influence next year’s presidential and congressional elections.
