The Bleak Landscape for Obamacare if the Anti-Subsidies Case Wins

No Republican governor suffered from failing to expand Medicaid.

Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, speaks at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Tampa, Florida, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
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Progressive reporters, facing yet another Obamacare lawsuit that has evolved rapidly from "ludicrous" to "imminent," are starting to imagine the map of a post-King v. Burwell dystopia. If conservatives convince the Supreme Court that people are not entitled to subsidies if they live in states without health care exchanges, what happens?

"If the Court rules in favor of the lawsuits," writes Jonathan Cohn, "it would likely create a political crisis, with Republicans from red states facing cross-cutting pressures. They'd hear it from conservatives out to kill Obamacare, of course, but they'd also face an outcry from constituents, many of them middle-class, losing coverage and demanding action."