Justices to hear challenge to health law subsidies

The AP reports:

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a new challenge to President Barack Obama's health care law that threatens subsidies that help millions of low- and middle-income people afford their health insurance premiums.

The justices said they will review a unanimous federal appeals court ruling that upheld Internal Revenue Service regulations that allow health-insurance tax credits under the Affordable Care Act for consumers in all 50 states. Opponents argue that most of the subsidies are illegal.

There's more:

at least four justices, needed to grant review, apparently agreed with the challengers that the issue is important enough to decide now.

Supporters of the health care law were flabbergasted and accused the court of verging into politics. The news came a week ahead of the second open enrollment season for subsidized private health insurance under the law.

"All of the general guidelines that the court traditionally uses in determining whether it should schedule an appeal are totally absent in this case," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, an advocacy group that supported Obama's health overhaul from its inception. Pollack called the court's action "an unusual political act."

The legal challenge to the subsidies is "the most serious existential threat" facing the Affordable Care Act, added Pollack.

Imagine that.