Two federal appeals courts released conflicting decisions on Tuesday on the legality of giving people subsidies to buy Obamacare health plans under the federal healthcare exchange.

Tuesday morning, a panel in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that a plain reading of Obamacare says that only people who buy insurance from a state-run exchange can be given subsidies. That decision had Republicans cheering, and calling it a significant blow to the law that could unravel it entirely if millions of people were suddenly not eligible for subsidies.

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday dealt a significant blow to the Affordable Care Act, when it threw out an IRS regulation that governs subsidies. But before the ink dried on that decision, another three-judge panel hearing a similar case issued a decision that was completely opposite.

In essence, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down subsidies in the 36 states that did not set up their own insurance exchanges.

Two federal appeals court panels issued conflicting rulings Tuesday on whether the government could subsidize health insurance premiums for millions of Americans, raising yet more questions about the future of the health care law four years after it was signed by President Obama.

The contradictory rulings will apparently have no immediate impact on consumers. But they could inject uncertainty, confusion and turmoil into health insurance markets as the administration firms up plans for another open enrollment season starting in November.