Health, Pharmaceuticals, and Safety Net Programs

ALEC's Efforts to Limit Patient Rights and End Social Welfare Programs The bills on this page reveal how bills pushed by ALEC corporations attempt to privatize Medicare, deregulate health insurers, protect negligent doctors, and cut holes in the safety net. These anti-patient "model bills" advance the interests of global pharmaceutical companies and the health insurance industry, while eroding the rights and health of Americans. Politicians are elected to represent the people, not corporations. Through ALEC, corporations have both a VOICE and a VOTE on specific changes to health laws. Do you?

READ the "Model Bills" HERE Click here for a zip file of bills relating to Health, Pharmaceuticals, and the Social Safety Net For a full list of bills from this section, click here For descriptions of some of these bills, scroll down or click here.

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Learn MORE about the "Model Bills" ALEC Corporations Are Backing to Rewrite YOUR Rights The Center for Media and Democracy analyzed the bills ALEC politicians and corporations voted for. More analysis is available below and also at ALEC Exposed's sister sites, PRWatch and SourceWatch.

How the bills expand the power of insurance companies These bills or resolutions: Oppose health insurance reforms (LINK to resolution against the new health care law). Opposing efforts to advance public health care in favor of a free-market approach that would expand the pool of consumers for private or for-profit insurance companies. You can see a related bill here. Eliminate mandated benefits intended to ensure minimal care for American workers by effectively deregulating key aspects of the insurance market for small businesses. See also this related bill. Permit sales by insurers not licensed in the purchaser’s state, allowing a race to the bottom in terms of mandated benefits for Americans and robust state regulation of health insurers. See more details below. Prevent patients who are injured or killed through medical malpractice from receiving full compensation for their injuries by: Abolishing joint and several liability rules that ensure full compensation among defendants that may share responsibility, such as surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies. Capping damages for pain and suffering and for the loss of companionship of a loved one who is killed due to medical negligence or incompetence. (LINK) requiring that injury claims be processed by doctors and the hospital business first. Prohibiting state or local efforts to limit hospital over-development, despite that over-development increases health care costs. Promoting health savings accounts with tax benefits that can be used by the wealthy as a tax shelter. These bills also aim to erode the safety net for older Americans or Americans living in poverty by: Supporting Medicare privatization by urging Congress to support "individual health savings accounts" that may not cover the cost of needed medical care. Dictating that states cannot cover medical assistance benefits better than the federal minimum by: prohibiting additional benefits that state residents may need for their health and lives and, Creating barriers to requiring important health benefits Privatizing Medicaid by, for example: giving disadvantaged persons vouchers to purchase private insurance in the form of a cash allowance. This private insurance would likely require high deductibles that make key medical care unaffordable to many, and encouraging recipients to forego care by providing a partial refund to low-income recipients who do not use the full value of their benefits. To see a full list of bills that affect human health, click here.

How safety net programs are eroded by these bills Some of this Corporate Agenda Has Already Become Law In 2011, Wisconsin Sen. Joe Leibham (R) and Rep. Robin Vos (R) introduced ALEC's "Freedom of Choice in Health Care" constitutional amendment to thwart federal health care reforms. For decades, ALEC has been fighting to protect the health care industry from regulations that control costs, ensure basic services, and protect consumers. As the universal health care debate began in late 2008, Blue Cross Blue Shield helped craft a model state constitutional amendment to frustrate federal efforts towards an individual health insurance mandate or public option. In December 2008, the ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force passed a model amendment. The three private sector members of that Task Force were executives from Blue Cross Blue Shield, Johnson & Johnson, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). ALEC's Board of Directors approved the amendment on January 14, 2009. According to ALEC, “in the 2010 session, 42 states either introduced or announced ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act. Eight states (Virginia, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri and Tennessee) passed the ALEC model as a statute, and two states (Arizona and Oklahoma) passed the ALEC model as a constitutional amendment.” Wisconsin Senator Leah Vukmir, who was named a 2009 ALEC "Legislator of the Year," is seeking to implement the ALEC "Health Care Choice Act for States" in Wisconsin. Vukmir is currently seeking co-sponsors for a similar bill, LRB 0373, and co-sponsored the comparable "Out-of-state Health Insurance Providers (Across State Lines)" bill (LRB 0921/1) in 2009. This bill would permit the purchase of health insurance across state lines from insurers not licensed in the state of the purchaser, which allows insurers to avoid state mandates for coverage. This would permit insurers to sell sub-standard health insurance policies, most likely at a lower price than policies sold by in-state insurers, crowding out more comprehensive policies and making it more difficult for persons with certain conditions to find inexpensive health care. Senator Vukmir is the ALEC "Health and Human Services" Task Force co-chair for 2011. In 2010, according to the ALEC "State Legislators Guide to Repealing Obama Care," nineteen states introduced such legislation, and Wyoming enacted it. Click [(LINK to Mary's article) here] to read more. Promoting Medicaid Block Grants lt Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) ALEC has issued two resolutions calling on Congress to amend Medicaid to replace the current funding program -- in which the federal government matches a percentage of state costs -- with block grants. Medicaid block grants are unlikely to provide adequate funds for states to meet growing Medicaid costs, particularly for disabled persons who rely on Medicaid for day-to-day life. If implemented, this change would reduce the total amount of funds available, resulting in either reduced coverage in Medicaid programs or restricted eligibility. While supporters say block grants give states "more flexibility," disability rights activists say "that’s like saying Jim Crow laws give states more flexibility to decide who gets to drink at their drinking fountains. Flexibility is basically a code word for abandonment." Medicaid block grants were part of Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan's much-criticized 2011 budget plan.

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