Connelly: Ferguson joins 15 AGs in legal defense of 'Obamacare'

Defending "Obamacare": "We've taken this fight to Congress and we're ready to take this to court." Defending "Obamacare": "We've taken this fight to Congress and we're ready to take this to court." Photo: Rachel La Corte, AP Photo: Rachel La Corte, AP Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Connelly: Ferguson joins 15 AGs in legal defense of 'Obamacare' 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Washington AG Bob Ferguson and 15 other Democratic attorneys general are asking to intervene in defense of a key provision of the Affordable Care Act -- subsidy payments that are made to insurance companies.

The "Obamacare" case is the latest in a wide range of legal challenges by the AGs. They have taken on the Trump administration's ban on travel from seven Muslim nations and are challenging his environmental rollbacks.

With Ferguson in the lead, they have vowed to defend national monuments from any Trump attacks.

The legal case, House v. Price, dates back to a House Republican bid to cut off payments to insurers for individual plans created under the Affordable Care Act. The subsidies help with out-of-pocket medical expenses for low-income Americans.

"If this key funding is eliminated, tens of thousands of low-income Washingtonians could lose their health coverage entirely," Ferguson said. "Many more would face devastating increases in the cost of care. "

Gov. Jay Inslee added: "Washington state has shown that, when done right, the Affordable Care Act expands health coverage to those who need it most, decreases the rate of health care cost inflation in the individual market, and creates jobs."

"We've taken this fight to Congress, and we're ready to take this to court," he added.

The states' intervention, led by California and New York, backstops the legal defense of the Affordable Care Act.

President Trump has suggested the federal government might abandon the case. Trump has made loud noises -- the only kind he knows -- to withhold payments to insurers, referring to the payments as "bailouts." They total about $7 billion a year.

Asking to intervene in the case, which is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the attorneys general said that Trump views health care for millions of low-income Americans as "little more than a bargaining chip."

The attorneys general argue that the Trump rumblings about withholding payments have created confusion in the marketplace and contributed to double-digit rate increases.

Ferguson estimated that more than 800,000 people in Washington depend on "Obamacare" for their health care.

The Affordable Care Act is based on two varieties of subsidies. One is premium subsidies, paid to people with income lower than four times the federal poverty level. The other is cost-sharing reduction subsidies (CSRs), paid directly to insurers to reduce out-of-pocket costs to people with incomes below 250 percent of the poverty level.

Almost 70,000 Washingtonians get CSRs. If the federal government reneges on its obligation to pay insurers for CSRs, the recipients could face dramatic premium increases that would jeopardize their ability to secure health care.

And, argued Ferguson, all of the 204,000 Washington enrollees in ACA plans could face premium increases of up to 20 percent.

The Affordable Care Act has enabled an additional 600,000 people in the state to gain insurance through expansion of eligibility under Medicaid.

As Inslee put it, "We must protect the reforms that are saving lives and providing a basic level of security to hard-working Washingtonians."