Peter Suderman on Why Obamacare Means What Obamacare Says

Is it possible to discern congressional intent by
examining what was never said? In the wake of last week’s circuit
court ruling that, contrary to the Obama administration’s current
implementation, Obamacare does not allow insurance subsidies in
federally run health exchanges, supporters of the law and reporters
who covered it have argued as much. No one in Congress ever said
that subsidies were limited to state-run exchanges, their argument
goes, and the idea was unheard of before critics of the health law
decided to challenge the administration in court.

It’s true that the legislative history isn’t particularly
revealing. The issue of whether subsidies would be available in
federally established exchanges was rarely if ever brought up prior
to the law’s passage.

Thankfully, writes Reason Senior Editor Peter Suderman,
there’s no need to infer from what wasn’t said. There is a clear
record of congressional intent in the plain text of the legislation
that Congress voted into law.

View this article.