Law360, New York (March 20, 2015, 12:12 PM EDT) -- On March 4, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in King v. Burwell, the most publicized case to reach the high court in some time. The issue is whether certain tax subsidies essential to the proper fiscal management of the Affordable Care Act will only be available on exchanges "established by the state," or whether those words can be interpreted to mean that the tax subsidies apply to exchanges established by the federal government in various states as well, where those states have failed to set the exchanges up. It is generally considered that if the Supreme Court rules that the tax subsidies will not be available to federally created exchanges, the entire ACA may collapse due to a crescendo of events: tax penalties for subscribers, withdrawal of those subscribers to avoid such penalties, a consequent rise in insurance premiums which will cause more withdrawals from the system and, perhaps, even failure of the participating insurance companies because of what will then be an insufficient subscriber base....