Obamacare ruling no threat in Calif.

Consumers receiving health insurance subsidies via Covered California have little to worry about from the highly publicized court ruling that provides the latest threat to the Affordable Care Act, state officials say.

Two U.S. courts of appeal issued Obamacare rulings this week, one maintaining that the federal government cannot provide health insurance subsidies in states that failed to set up their own insurance marketplaces.

Covered California is the health insurance “exchange” established by California. Its officials issued a statement to the effect that the ruling had no effect on consumers who used its marketplace.

Fourteen states and the District of Columbia run their own health insurance exchanges. Health insurance subsidies were expected to continue for consumers in those states at least until the case has run its full course.

The White House said: “We are confident in the legal case that the Department of Justice will be making” in its appeal. The case will not necessarily go to the U.S. Supreme Court, as did a major case concerning the Affordable Care Act. That 2012 Obamacare ruling favored President Obama’s keystone legislation and triggered enactment of the Affordable Care Act.

Two federal courts issued differing opinions on the same day. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., sided with the administration in backing the government’s right to offer subsidies in those states without exchanges. It said the IRS rule regarding subsidies was “a permissible exercise of the agency’s discretion.”

The ruling against subsidies came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The U.S. government offers insurance and subsidies to consumers in 36 states. States running their own exchanges are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Covered California said: “We are aware of today’s court ruling, but it does not apply to state-based exchanges.”

White House press spokesman Josh Earnest said the ruling had “no practical impact” on subsidies and predicted another key victory in the courts:

“You don’t need a fancy legal degree to understand that Congress intended for every eligible American to have access to tax credits that would lower their health care costs — regardless of whether it was state officials or federal officials who were running the marketplace.”