The Northern Arapaho Tribe filed a federal suit to allow its Wind River Casino employees to buy subsidized health insurance plans.
The suit claims the Affordable Care Act requires the tribe to provide healthcare benefits to its employees instead of allowing their employees who also are tribal members to buy subsidized health insurance plans through the federal government’s HealthCare.gov website.
Tribal officials say they support the Affordable Care Act, “but folks in the agencies have taken a wrong turn in implementing it,” tribal Councilman Darrel O’Neal said, according to WyoFile.com.
The tribe filed its suit in the Cheyenne Federal District Court on December 8 and argues the Affordable Care Act doesn’t count tribes as large employers that are required to provide health insurance benefits to its workers.
But the IRS is classifying the tribe as a large employer and requires it to provide health insurance benefits to its workers. That means tribal members working for the tribe can’t buy subsidized individual health insurance plans, the tribe argues.
Because they can’t buy subsidized health insurance plans, the tribe argues its members who also are its employees likely will go without health insurance coverage and instead rely on the Indian Health Service clinic for their healthcare needs. The tribe says the clinic rations its care and at times will turn away patients due to budgetary constraints, WyoFile reported.
