June 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an argument from a trio of insurance companies who say they are owed millions of dollars in unpaid reimbursements under the Affordable Care Act, leaving lower courts to settle the issue.
The insurers, Maine Community Health Options, Community Health Choice and Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative, sought help from the high court to receive the reimbursements -- some of which go back years.
The court's decision Monday not to weigh in on the case leaves the matter up to lower appellate courts.
The Supreme Court's decision leaves in place a lower court ruling last August that ruled the reimbursements could be offset by other income received in the form of premium tax cut credits.
In April 2020, the high court had ruled that the government must pay various private insurers $12 billion owed to them. When that case returned to lower courts, the federal government argued it was not required to pay in full, setting off another round of legal fights.
The court's ruling on Monday is the second in four days relating to the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare.
On Thursday, it ruled 7-2 that a number of Republican-led states didn't have proper standing to try and invalidate the 2010 healthcare law. It was the third major ruling supporting the ACA.
Tens of millions of Americans have acquired coverage under the ACA since it was enacted more than a decade ago.