"A case with major implications for the future of Obamacare"

◼ Here comes the next Obamacare showdown - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner @philipklein

If the U.S. Supreme Court rules in June that health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans are illegal, Republicans better not be caught flat-footed, because President Obama will be ready to pounce, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told the Washington Examiner in an interview.

“As the president said to me in the White House [earlier this month], he said, ‘There are five million people [who receive subsidies through the federal exchange] — and I know who they are.’ He spoke like a community organizer who was going to try to use those people that he has actually caused significant damage to by not applying the law,” Barrasso said from his senate office.

The Wyoming senator has of late been something of a Paul Revere of the Republican Senate majority, shouting, “King vs. Burwell is coming! King vs. Burwell is coming!”

...If justices invalidate the IRS rule, then it would mean that millions of Americans in up to 37 states that did not set up their own exchanges would lose their insurance subsidies and be exposed to the full sticker price of Obamacare plans. On the flip side, taxpayers could stand to save hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidy money that would no longer have to be paid out.

A ruling would also have broader ramifications for the healthcare law. For instance, Obamacare’s fines against employers that do not offer health insurance coverage are triggered when a worker claims government subsidies to purchase insurance on an exchange — but in states where workers can no longer legally receive those subsidies, then there are no fines. The employer mandate, thus, is effectively dead in those states.