Health, Pharmaceuticals, and Safety Net Programs

ALEC's Efforts to Limit Patient Rights and End Social Welfare 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 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 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 Relaxing laws to let seniors to trade their homes for long-term care by entering into "reverse mortgages" 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 Deterring medical malpractice lawsuits by awarding attorney’s fees to the prevailing party Preventing patients injured or killed by medical malpractice from receiving full compensation for their injuries through: Limiting recovery based on insurance payments Abolishing joint and several liability rules that ensure full compensation Capping non-economic damages Reducing the statute of limitations for the period an injured person can bring a lawsuit, 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 Deregulating the individual health insurance market by eliminating mandated benefits and giving insurers freedom to write their own regulations Deregulating the insurance market for small businesses to eliminating mandated benefits intended to ensure minimal care for the insured These are but a few of the bills that limit patient rights and increase the cost of health care; to see all of the ALEC healthcare bills and send them to your computer individually, click here. 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 many decades, a major agenda item for ALEC has been the fight to protect the health care industry from regulations that control costs, provide basic services, and aid consumers. As the universal health care debate began in late 2008, ALEC partnered with Blue Cross Blue Shield to craft a model state constitutional amendment to frustrate federal efforts towards an individual health insurance mandate or a public option. The model amendment was passed by the ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force in December 2008 and approved by the Board of Directors 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 Representative Leah Vukmir (named a 2009 ALEC "Legislator of the Year") co-sponsored the "Out-of-state Health Insurance Providers (Across State Lines)" bill (LRB 0921/1) in 2009, which resembles the ALEC "Health Care Choice Act for States". It failed to pass the Assembly in 2010. This bill would permit the purchase of health insurance across state lines, from insurers not licensed in the state of the purchaser. Such policies are not subject to the mandated benefits required in all health insurance policies sold in the state of the purchaser, and would permit the sale of sub-standard health-insurance policies -- probably for a price lower than policies sold by in-state insurers, thereby crowding-out more comprehensive policies that cover necessary care. (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.)

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 Capping Medical Assistance benefits in a state at the federal minimum through: prohibiting additional benefits that the state’s residents may need, or Creating barriers to the enactment of new health benefits 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, 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 Opposing efforts at public health care in favor of a "free-market" approach that expands the pool of consumers for private insurance companies Rejecting guaranteed issue and community rating, or federal authority over state health reform programs These are but a few of the bills that attack the social safety net; to see all of the ALEC social welfare bills and send them to your computer individually, click here.. Promoting Medicaid Block Grants ALEC has issued two resolutions calling on Congress to amend Medicaid to replace the current funding program (a federal matching 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 persons with disabilities 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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