US Supreme Court divided over Obamacare challenge

A sharply divided US Supreme Court heard arguments today on the fate of ObamaCare. The court is focusing on five words out of the over 1,000 pages of the act. The words that could result in the destruction of the law are, “exchange established by the State”

The problem is that many of the states are using a federal exchange and do not have exchanges that are set up by the individual states, and as a result, the subsidies they are receiving may be unconstitutional and illegal.  The challenge rests on the distinction between federal and state-run insurance marketplaces set up as part of President Obama’s 2010 law.

During arguments the two justices expected to make the deciding vote did not make clear how they would rule. The high court previously upheld a separate element of the law in 2012. In King v Burwell, the justices are being asked to determine whether the wording of the law makes people in all 50 states eligible for federal tax subsidies.