GOP Senators: We'll Create 'Bridge Away From Obamacare' If Insured Lose Subsidies

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) — Three leading Republican senators are promising to help millions of people who may lose federal health insurance subsidies if the Supreme Court invalidates them — by creating a "bridge away from Obamacare."

President Barack Obama speaks at an Organizing for Action 'Obamacare Summit' at the St. Regis Hotel on November 4, 2013 in Washington, D.C. (Image source: Pool/Getty Images)

Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Orrin Hatch of Utah announced their intentions in a Washington Post opinion article posted online late Sunday:

When the court rules inKing v. Burwell, we anticipate that it will hold the administration to the laws Congress passed, rather than the laws the administration wishes Congress had passed, and prohibit subsidies in states that opted not to set up their own exchanges, as the language in the law clearly states. Such a ruling could cause 6 million Americans to lose a subsidy they counted on, and for many the resulting insurance premiums would be unaffordable.

The senators said there would be financial assistance for a "transitional period" and that states would be allowed the freedom to improve their health care systems.

They provide no detail on how much assistance they would propose, its duration or how to pay for it. Nor do they say how they would address divisions among Republicans or Obama administration opposition to any weakening of the 2010 law.

But they "all agree Obamacare is a mess," the senators' op-ed reads.

The court hears arguments Wednesday in a case challenging the subsidies. A decision is expected in June.

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