ALEC: 'No' to Exchanges, 'Yes' to Health Compact

At the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council in New Orleans last week, the organization’s Health and Human Services Task Force voted to adopt the “no Obamacare exchange” resolution posted here as model legislation for state legislatures. The key statement of the resolution says this: “(I)t is not in the best interest of the state for any state official to participate in planning or establishing health insurance exchanges as provided for in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”

It also weighs in on the federal grants that Michigan is planning to accept and spend: "The Legislature urges Congress to defund planning grants to states for the establishment of PPACA health insurance exchanges by the states."

ALEC is a center-right organization comprised of state legislators and others, whose main activity is to draft model legislation. The organization describes its mission as "to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty." The National Conference of State Legislatures is ALEC’s center-left counterpart.

The ALEC task force also voted to adopt as a model a multi-state Health Care Compact that if approved by Congress would allow states to opt-out of Obamacare’s provisions, and also block-grant to member states all the federal Medicaid and Medicare dollars now spent in the state. Four states — Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Missouri — have already adopted the compact. Legislation to make Michigan the fifth — House Bill 4693 introduced by Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester — is currently pending before the Michigan House Health Policy Committee.

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See also:

Michigan Creeps Closer to Obamacare 'Exchange'

Health Care Compact Shifts Choices from D.C. to Michigan
“Obamacare Does Not Apply Here”

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