Efforts to Limit Patient Rights and End Safety Programs
The bills on this page reveal how bills pushed by ALEC corporations would 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?
<flashmp3>File:Wendell Potter AUDIO FINAL.mp3</flashmp3> Listen to Wendell Potter, the Center for Media and Democracy's Senior Fellow on Health Care, discuss ALEC and the corporate efforts to undermine health reform.
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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 with a state constitutional amendment created with the insurance industry, as well as a resolution, that thwarts implementation of the Affordable Care Act
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.
These bills also 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 that exceed the federal minimum by:
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, and 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.” The three private sector members of the ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force (which passed the model amendment) were executives from Blue Cross Blue Shield, Johnson & Johnson, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
Undermining State Insurance Mandates
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 coming soon)] 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. (See here and here.) 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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