Human Health

ALEC's Efforts to Limit Patient's Rights and End Social Safety Programs The bills on this page represent ALEC corporations' efforts to privatize Medicare, deregulate health insurers, protect negligent doctors, limit Medical Assistance, and cut holes in the safety net. These anti-patient "model bills" are drafted at American Legislative Exchange Council conventions with input from, and approval by, Big Insurance and Big Pharma, then introduced in state legislatures to erode the rights of all Americans. Politicians are elected to represent the people, not corporations; through ALEC, corporations have both a VOICE and a VOTE on specific state laws. Do you?

READ the "Model Bills" HERE Clicking here will send a zip file of all bills on this topic. To read the list of individual bills before opening them, click here. Join the Conversation! Get the Goods on ALEC's Agenda No id supplied for Twitter account! ALEC funding and spending (here) ALEC connections to David and Charles Koch, the oil billionaires (here) Proposals to change the rules for workers, including unions (here) Industry-specific agendas, like oil companies (here) and the health insurance industry (here) How YOU Can Expose ALEC & Share What You Learn SPREAD THE WORD. Share this information through FACEBOOK, EMAIL, AND TWITTER. Concerned groups and people in every state need this to investigate how ALEC corporations are rewriting laws for their own advantage. EXPOSE ALEC LEGISLATORS. Demand the truth about which politicians in your state are in ALEC. Uncover whether YOUR tax dollars are paying ALEC "dues." Expose politicians who accept “scholarships” from ALEC's corporate-funded coffers for fancy trips. EXPOSE ALEC'S ROLE IN YOUR STATE HOUSE. Read these corporate-backed "model bills" NOW and cross-check them with bills in your state legislature. Ask your local media to report on what you have found and write your local newspaper. SHARE YOUR DISCOVERIES. Tell us what about what you uncovered! Tweet what you learn with the hashtag #ALECExposed or join the "Community Discussion" or email a confidential tip via tipline AT ALECexposed.org. Act today to help your family, friends, and fellow Americans better understand how global corporations are trying to rewrite your rights. WHO Is Behind ALEC? Corporations and politicians on ALEC's Task Forces(details here) Businesses and legislators on ALEC's leadership boards (details here) Managers, staff, and "experts" of ALEC (details here) Learn MORE about the "Model Bills" that Can be Used to Rewrite YOUR Rights The Center for Media and Democracy has annotated the "model legislation" politicians and corporations voted on, and we will be adding our analysis to this page and other publications, such as our sister sites, PRWatch and SourceWatch. Please bookmark this page and check the boxes below for updates on analysis and information. How are corporations limiting patient rights and increasing healthcare profits in these bills? These bills limit the rights of patients and increase Big Insurance profits by: (click the link to download the bill) Prohibiting state or local efforts to limit hospital over-development by opposing “Certificate of Need” laws, despite over-development increasing health care costs (5J0) Relaxing laws to let seniors to trade their homes for long-term care by entering into “reverse mortgages” (5M7) Promoting health savings accounts with tax benefits, accounts that undermine the affordability of comprehensive health insurance plans and can be used by the wealthy as a tax shelter (5K0) Deterring medical malpractice lawsuits by awarding attorney’s fees to the prevailing party (5O11) Preventing patients injured or killed by medical malpractice from receiving full compensation for their injuries through: Limiting recovery based on insurance payments (5O0) Abolishing joint and several liability rules that ensure full compensation (5O3) Capping non-economic damages (5O4) Reducing the statute of limitations for the period an injured person can bring a lawsuit (5O8), or establishing the more liability-limiting statute of repose Permitting the purchase of health care across state lines from insurers not licensed in the purchaser’s state, allowing a “race to the bottom” in terms of mandated benefits or state regulation of health insurers (5U4) Deregulating the individual health insurance market by eliminating mandated benefits and giving insurers freedom to write their own regulations (5U14) Deregulating the insurance market for small businesses to eliminating mandated benefits intended to ensure minimal care for the insured (5U7) These are but a few of the bills that limit patient rights and increase the cost of health care; to download all of these ALEC bills, click here. Some of this Corporate Agenda Has Already Become Law (PLACEHOLDER)Wisconsin Governor (and ALEC alum) Scott Walker took a cue from the ALEC corporate wish list and introduced a radical bill in February 2011 to bust public employee unions. Wisconsin Act 10 inspired months of protests and has been subjected to a series of legal challenges. The changes to collective bargaining included X, which closely resembles the "Y Act" from ALEC. It also included Z, a policy put forth in "A Act" from ALEC (PLACEHOLDER). To learn more about this story, click here (PLACEHOLDER) (Have any of these bills been introduced or enacted in YOUR state? If so, please add that information to the ALEC Exposed page on your state by searching for your state's name in the search engine at the top of this page.) Other Helpful Resources Here are links to reports by reporters and advocates that have been challenging the ALEC corporate agenda: (CMD is not affiliated with these other organizations. If you would like to be listed as a resource, please contact us.) The American Legislative Exchange Council, on the Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch.org (wiki) and A CMD Special Report: Who Is the League of American Voters?, by the Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch.org (March 2011) (PLACEHOLDER) Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America, by the American Association for Justice (May 2010) Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States: The Untold Story Behind the American Legislative Exchange Council, by the Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council (March 2002) ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures, by People for the American Way (May 2011) Wisconsin's Cronon Affair: The Power of a Simple Fact, by The Nation (March 2011) Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, by Common Cause (August 2006) Conservative Corporate Advocacy Group ALEC Behind Voter Disenfranchisement Efforts' by the Center for American Progress and Campus Progress (March 2011) How are corporations attacking social welfare programs in these bills? These bills aim to erode social security protections in favor of corporate interests by: (click the link to download the bill) Supporting Medicare privatization by urging individual health savings accounts that may not cover the cost of care (5K3) Capping Medical Assistance benefits in a state at the federal minimum through: prohibiting additional benefits that the state’s residents may need (5N0), or creating barriers to the enactment of new health benefits (5N1) Privatizing Medicaid through, for example: giving disadvantaged persons "vouchers" to purchase private insurance (in the form of a cash allowance), likely at high deductibles that would make most medical care unaffordable (5V3), encouraging recipients to forego care by providing a partial refund to low-income recipients who do not use the full value of their benefits (5V0) Opposing efforts at public health care in favor of a “free-market” approach that expands the pool of consumers for private insurance companies (5U11) Rejecting guaranteed issue and community rating, or federal authority over state health reform programs (5U12) These are but a few of the bills that attack the social safety net; to download all of these bills, click here. Limiting Damages for the Loss of Your Child, Spouse, or Parent (PLACEHOLDER)One of the corporate-politician proposals of ALEC would limit the ability of a family to recover for emotional damages due to the death or injury of a loved one. (LINK) This type of legislation basically makes working class or poor people's lives--as well as the elderly--worth less to their families because any damages for pain and suffering due to the death of a child, spouse, or parent would be limited to an amount equal to their loved one's lost earnings and medical expenses. These kind of corporate provisions try to prevent a jury of YOUR peers from awarding you damages for all you have lost or suffered AFTER a jury finds that your loved one's death was the result of corporate negligence, misconduct, or greed. Is a local legislator who was elected to represent YOU actually protecting the profits of global corporate wrongdoers through such legislation instead of YOU and YOUR FAMILY? Barring Corporate Liability for Killing Your Dog or Cat (PLACEHOLDER)In addition to limiting the rights of people injured by corporations, under the guise of limiting "frivolous" litigation in 2006, one of the proposals would make it harder for you to obtain any compensation from a company whose negligence killed your family pet.(LINK) In 2009, Americans learned that many U.S. pet food companies had shipped the production of food for their four-legged companions overseas and that Chinese contractors had contaminated the pet food with melamine in order to increase profit margins, resulting in the death and serious injuries of numerous dogs and cats in the U.S. If passed in your state, ALEC's corporation-backed proposal would make it very difficult for YOU to recover any damages for the loss of your beloved animal companion due to corporate negligence or misconduct in manufacturing food for America's beloved pets. ALEC Exposed is a project of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). CMD does NOT accept donations from for-profit corporations or government agencies. More information about CMD is available here. You can reach the publisher of ALEC Exposed, CMD's Executive Director, Lisa Graves, via editor AT ALECexposed.org. Worker and Consumer Rights · Tort Reform and Injured Americans · Privatizing Schools and Higher Ed Policy · Health, Pharmaceuticals and Safety Net Programs · Environment, Energy and Agriculture · Democracy, Voter Rights and Federal Power · Taxes and Budgets · Guns, Prisons, Crime and Immigration