Appeals courts issue conflicting ACA rulings

Two appeals courts issued conflicting rulings on whether enrollees on the Affordable Care Act's federal health exchanges are eligible for subsidies -- an issue central to the law's implementation. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2-1 that enrollees on ACA's federal health exchanges are not eligible for subsidies. The court noted the language of ACA makes tax credit subsidies available to individuals enrolled on exchanges "established by the State." The court said ACA "unambiguously restricts" the subsidy to state exchanges and vacated the Internal Revenue Service's regulation that makes enrollees of both federal and state exchanges eligible.

In a separate ruling issued later on Tuesday, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 3-0 that federal enrollees are eligible for subsidies. The court said the statute language is "ambiguous and subject to multiple interpretations" and upheld the IRS regulation "as a permissible exercise of the agency's discretion." ...