The Obama administration is attempting to use IRS rule-making to sidestep Congress and rework a portion of the ObamaCare law. In a Wall Street Journal piece, Jonathan H. Adler and Michael F. Canon describe a "major glitch that threatens" the "basic functioning of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" (PPACA). The column relates that the ObamaCare act provides for "premium assistance," aka taxpayer subsidies, to soften the blow for the coming premium increases for individuals under the new law.  However, the law as written allows premium assistance only within the state-run exchanges. And according to the Journal column, "so far, only 17 states have passed legislation to create an exchange."  While the law allows the federal government to create exchanges for the recalcitrant states, the big problem for the administration is that the law as written does not provide for premium assistance under the federal exchanges.  And therein lies the rub. In response, the...(Read Full Post)