--- title: Obama: President Defends No Obamacare Backup Plan description: “There is, in our view, not a plausible legal basis for striking it down,” President Obama said in an interview MOnday canonical: https://time.com/3729387/obama-health-care-backup-plan/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-02T23:58:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:51:15.784Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Defends No Obamacare Backup Plan Ahead of Court Case og:description: "If they rule against us, we'll have to take a look at what our options are" og:url: https://time.com/3729387/obama-health-care-backup-plan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta57569704429611d/698781cc524fc05e34decb84/barack-obama2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: U.S. President Obama speaks during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Defends No Obamacare Backup Plan Ahead of Court Case twitter:description: "If they rule against us, we'll have to take a look at what our options are" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta57569704429611d/698781cc524fc05e34decb84/barack-obama2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Defends No Obamacare Backup Plan Ahead of Court Case > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 2, 2015 11:58 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during an exclusive interview with Reuters in the Library of the White House in Washington March 2, 2015. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during an exclusive interview with Reuters in the Library of the White House in Washington March 2, 2015. Kevin Lamarque—Reuters by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Mar 2, 2015 11:58 PM UTC In an interview Monday, President Barack Obama [defended](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/us-usa-obama-domestic-idUSKBN0LY2I720150302) his Administration not having a backup plan ready to go if the Supreme Court rules against a key part of his signature health care law. The court is set to hear oral arguments in the case of _King v. Burwell_ this week, which challenges whether people who sign up for health insurance through federal exchanges are eligible for tax subsidies. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell recently [acknowledged](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/upshot/health-secretary-says-theres-no-backup-plan-if-court-rules-against-health-law.html) there was no contingency plan if the court rules against the Affordable Care Act this session, meaning millions of Americans could lose their insurance. The case should be “a pretty straightforward case of statutory interpretation,” Obama told Reuters, despite Republicans jumping on the prospect of the law being struck down. “There is, in our view, not a plausible legal basis for striking it down,” he added. “If they rule against us, we’ll have to take a look at what our options are. But I’m not going to anticipate that. I’m not going to anticipate bad law.” Read more at [Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/us-usa-obama-domestic-idUSKBN0LY2I720150302). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3729387/obama-health-care-backup-plan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3729387/obama-health-care-backup-plan/"},"headline":"President Defends No Obamacare Backup Plan Ahead of Court Case","datePublished":"2015-03-02T23:58:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:51:15.784Z","description":"\"If they rule against us, we'll have to take a look at what our options are\"","url":"https://time.com/3729387/obama-health-care-backup-plan/","keywords":["White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta57569704429611d/698781cc524fc05e34decb84/barack-obama2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta57569704429611d/698781cc524fc05e34decb84/barack-obama2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Obama speaks during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington","caption":"U.S. President Obama speaks during an interview with Reuters at the White House in Washington","creditText":"Kevin Lamarque—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3729387/obama-health-care-backup-plan/","name":"President Defends No Obamacare Backup Plan Ahead of Court Case"}}]}] ```