President Barack Obama revealed he does not anticipate the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down a provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that would eliminate health coverage for millions of Americans.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the King v. Burwell court case, which has been supported by conservative figures and claimed 37 states are wrongfully receiving tax subsidies as a result of their states not implementing a state-based health insurance marketplace as outlined in the ACA.

Language in the ACA law has been questioned regarding the federal tax subsidies for the 37 states. The Obama administration revealed there is no "Plan B" if the Supreme Court was to eliminate the subsidies.

"This should be a pretty straightforward case of statutory interpretation," said Obama. "If you look at the law, if you look at the testimony of those who were involved in the law, including some of the opponents of the law, the understanding was that people who joined the federal exchange were going to be able to access tax credits. Just like if they went to a state exchange. And you know what? The thing's working, exactly as intended. Which is why we signed up 11 million people to go through these exchanges."

As Latin Post reported, the second open enrollment period of Healthcare.gov, the federal marketplace for the 37 states, accrued approximately 8.8 million enrollees. With the state-based exchanges, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell said 11.4 million people are registered as a result of the ACA's implementation.

"And we're seeing more competition, lower prices, more choice, more shopping among people than even I expected, even proponents of it expected," Obama continued. "And it's costing less than anybody expected. So the things working. And there's in our view not a plausible legal basis for striking it down. But, you know, we'll have to wait and see what the Supreme Court decides."

If the Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration, the president said he will take a look at their options, "but I'm not going to anticipate that."

Obama said, "I'm not going to anticipate bad law. All right?"

According to Politico, Justices John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy could be the deciding figures for the Supreme Court's decision.

"The Obama administration hopes to set up a scenario in which the justices agree it's clear that Congress intended for subsidies to go to everyone. That would make it much harder for them to rule that the subsidies must end merely based on the one clause. It's an argument that could resonate with Roberts and Kennedy," wrote Jennifer Haberkorn and Josh Gerstein.

The 37 states use the federal marketplace: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

As Burwell noted, Florida and Texas, two states with large Latino populations, are responsible for the most health insurance sign-ups during the second open enrollment period. The HHS revealed Floridians were responsible for 1.6 million plan selections, which is the highest of all 37 states. Texas ranked second with approximately 1.19 million plan selections.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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