Home / Articles / Conflicting U.S. appeals court rulings could curb participation in Affordable Care Act programs for up to two years by adding high levels of uncertainty, says Wharton's Scott Harrington. A split decision by two U.S. appeals courts yesterday affecting the treatment of subsidies for individual insurance policyholders under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could have a dampening effect on participation by the public and insurance companies in the near future, according to Wharton health care management professor  Scott Harrington . The opposing decisions revolve around ACA guidelines, which provide sliding-scale subsidies for mostly low-middle and middle income people. (The poorest Americans are eligible for Medicare.) The subsidies allow those groups to buy health coverage for under $100 per month in most cases. Participants sign on through exchanges set up either by individual states or by the federal government.…