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Obamacare: The Impending Collapse

Obamacare is on the ropes. As everyone is beginning to understand, the malfunctioning website is the least of it. There’s the millions of canceled individual policies, skyrocketing Medicaid enrollments … and much more trouble ahead.

As previously reported, four pending lawsuits challenge an IRS rule that would extend the ACA’s coverage mandates and subsidies into states that have declined to establish a state exchange and are now operating under healthcare.gov. Sean Trende has a tremendous piece on the four cases here.

Two of the cases were brought by states (Oklahoma and Indiana). The other two were cobbled together by the Competitive Enterprise Institute; Michael Carvin of Jones, Day represents the plaintiffs in both cases. (Disclosure: I serve on CEI’s Board.)

The two cases are on an extremely fast track. District Judge Judge Paul Friedman (D.C. Circuit) has denied the government’s motion to dismiss the case, ordered expedited briefing, and promised a ruling by February 15, 2014. The other case, filed in September in a U.S. District Court in Richmond, is on an even faster schedule: briefing will conclude in early December, and there may be a ruling before the end of the year. The filings in both cases are available at www.cei.org/obamacare.

More and more, the Rolls Royce of progressive politics looks like a tricycle. And the wheels are coming off.