Two federal appeals courts issued conflicting rulings Tuesday in a dispute involving crucial financing for President Barack Obama's health care law, according to Reuters.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court in Washington said the plain language of the law states that financial aid to help people pay insurance premiums can be provided only in states that have set up their own insurance exchanges, Reuters reported.
A similar panel of the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, said the language of the law is confusing and that the Internal Revenue Service reasonably interpreted the will of Congress when it said that tax credits can also be provided in states where the federal government is running the markets, according to Reuters.
The courts divided on the meaning behind the law's words, Reuters reported. The law says subsidies may be given "through an exchange established by the state," a phrase that conservative lawyers argue excludes the federal marketplace.
The Obama administration counters that the exchanges were meant to be uniform, according to Reuters.
Both cases had been pending for months, and both courts are on an equal level in the U.S. judicial system, just below the Supreme Court, Reuters reported.
The latest conservative challenge to President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul will not necessarily land in the U.S. Supreme Court, although it could end up there as soon as this year if the two lower courts go on disagreeing, according to Reuters.
At stake is how millions of Americans pay for private health insurance, or if they can afford it at all, Reuters reported.
The 2010 Affordable Care Act authorized tax credits to subsidize private health insurance, according to Reuters.
Seeking to upend the law as it was going into effect, businesses and individuals filed lawsuits asking that the subsidies be declared unlawful except in states that established their own online insurance marketplaces, Reuters reported.
Analysts estimate that as many as five million people could be affected if subsidies disappear from the federally created marketplaces, according to Reuters. The federal government set up insurance marketplaces in 36 states that did not themselves establish exchanges.
