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Our plan for fixing health care — Orrin Hatch, Lamar Alexander, & John Barrasso | For The Washington Post (on sltrib.com )

"Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments about whether the Obama administration used the IRS to deliver health insurance subsidies to Americans in violation of the law. Millions of Americans may lose these subsidies if the court finds that the administration acted illegally. If that occurs, Republicans have a plan to protect Americans harmed by the administration's actions. ...

" ... Republicans have a plan to create a bridge away from Obamacare. ..."

"On Sunday night, three Senate Republicans — Lamar Alexander, John Barrasso and Orrin Hatch — published a Washington Post op-ed promising that if the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare and rips subsidies out of federal exchanges, 'Republicans have a plan to protect Americans harmed by the administration's actions.'

"The problem is they don't have a plan. And Republicans spent the last week showing that even if they did have a plan, there's no way the House would pass it. ...

" ... There's a game behind the game here: Republicans want to persuade five members of the Supreme Court that it's safe to rule against Obamacare — they want the Justices to feel secure that Republicans will fix the mess, rather than letting it become a sucking wound that turns the country against both the GOP and the Roberts Court.

"But they can't actually promise that. They don't have a plan to fix Obamacare, and they don't have a plan to pass the plan they don't have to fix Obamacare. ...

" ... In the end, some red states will end up building their own exchanges, just as some red states have accepted the Medicaid expansion. Some red states will hold out, at least for a few more years. America will develop a two-tier health-care system, in which blue states that participate in Obamacare are subsidized by red states that don't."