States get involved in health care court case
A federal appeals court in Washington has agreed to let a group of states get involved in a lawsuit over government payments to insurers as part of the Obama administration's health care law. It's an intervention House Republicans had opposed.
House Republicans trying to thwart the Affordable Care Act sued the administration in federal court in 2014, arguing the law lacked specific language appropriating the "cost-sharing" subsidies. A district court judge agreed with House Republicans but the case was appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
On Tuesday, the court allowed a group of state attorneys general to join in the case, in defense of the subsidies. In an order, the court says the states have "demonstrated the appropriateness of their intervention."