Health Reform

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ALEC's Efforts to Limit Reform of the Health Insurance Industry

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, both global corporations and politicians actually VOTED FOR limiting reforms of the health insurance industry. These bills affect the substantive and procedural rights of Americans to obtain medical care to preserve their health, prevent disease, repair injuries, and prevent death or a diminished lifespan.

  • Below, you will find the "model" bills VOTED on by corporate-politician "task forces" to block efforts to reform the health insurance industry.
  • We also provide links on global corporations involved in ALEC's "task" of thwarting efforts to change health insurance rules to expand coverage.
  • We also note companies that have served in ALEC's "leadership" and contributed undisclosed sums to access politicians to advance their agenda.


ALEC describes its "reforms" as protecting against governmental "mandates." But, in general, these proposed bills and resolutions -- VOTED on by corporations and politicians -- would leave to corporations to dictate whether a person recieves medical or life-saving treatment or not. While some politicians deployed rhetoric about supposed government "death panels" in an effort to inspire fear of reform, the fact is that insurance companies are the original "death panels" that make economic decisions to drop coverage or deny life-saving treatment to people who have paid them premiums to ensure that they have access to needed health care.

According to documents the Center for Media and Democracy has helped reveal, corporations had "both a VOICE and a VOTE" in the bills and resolutions described below. Did you? Of course you didn't, because you didn't buy a seat at the ALEC corporate-politician table by paying it more than you could give a politician. What can you do about it? A lot of things. You can start by sharing the link to this article right now.

Bills to Thwart Health Insurance Reform that Corporations VOTED For via ALEC

"Model" Bills and Resolutions to Prevent Health Insurance Reforms

Here are the bills the Center for Media and Democracy has analyzed that corporations and politicians on ALEC's "Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development" Task Force VOTED for.


(add file links here)

Summary of ALEC's Effort to Block Reforms of the Health Insurance Industry

The bills and resolutions VOTED on by corporations and their politician allies through ALEC try to stop health reform by:
  • Making it easier for PLACEHOLDER to get a judge to dismiss an injured American's case before it gets to a jury;
  • Making it harder for injured people to use "class action" rules to strengthen injured Americans' negotiating power and cut costs;
  • Making it more difficult to introduce new scientific research in injury cases through expert witnesses;
  • Limiting the liability of corporations by changing the rules about apportioning who is at fault;
  • Limiting the ability of Americans to sue for injuries where the cause or effect was not known until later; and
  • Changing the rules about where an injured American can sue and the process for appealing a ruling;

ALEC corporations and politicians also VOTED for:

  • Limiting PLACEHOLDER liability for injuries or death to Americans from corporate products if a product is approved by the government (many regulatory agencies have been captured through the revolving door between government and the industries being regulated);
  • Limiting the power of Congress to create national rules to protect Americans, no matter their state residence, if injured by defective corporate products distributed nationally; and, among other things,
  • Limiting the power of courts to issue certain kinds of rulings in personal injury cases;

ALEC also advanced the agenda for particularly industries through its tort "reform" legislation. For example, its corporate-politician groups VOTED for:

  • Limiting PLACEHOLDER litigation over cancer and other deadly diseases caused by exposure to asbestos;
  • Limiting the power of state Attorneys General to protect dying Americans in tobacco litigation and other cases; and
  • Limiting the liability of health insurance companies and doctors by changing the rules for suing for medical malpractice, when a doctor's negligence causes injury or death, and changing the rules for injured Americans who have health insurance through an HMO.


ALEC also sought to change rules for medical malpractice cases. "Model" legislation to change these rules is available here (link).

Ways You Can Help ALEC Exposed

Titles of "Model" Bills to Check for in Your State

You can help your fellow Americans understand ALEC's corporate-politician agenda by creating or filling out articles on which of these bills was introduced in your state's legislature and by which politicians. You can also help by documenting the corporations that donated to those politicians as well as the corporate- or CEO-funded "non-profit" groups that run so-called "issue" ads in your state during elections to support those politicians. Were any of the bills in this link introduced in your state legislature to repeal the rights of people injured in your state?
  • Link to list of bills goes here.
  • Link to states goes here.

Did You Know about these Bills?

PLACEHOLDER for Story Goes HERE Limiting Recovery to Economic Damages versus Emotional Damages

One of the corporate-politician approved bills via ALEC would limit the ability of a family to recover for emotional damages due to the death or injury of a loved one. This type of legislation basically makes working class or poor people's lives worth less to their families since they would be limited primarily to recovering the cost of lost earnings and medical care and not able to recover for the emotional damages caused by a traumatic injury or loss. These kind of provisions seek to prevent a jury of your peers from awarding you damages for all you have lost or suffered as a result of corporate negligence, malfeasance, or greed. Is a politician elected to represent and protect you actually protecting corporate profits through such legislation?

PLACEHOLDER Limiting Liability for Killing or Injuring Your Beloved Pets

In addition to limiting the rights of people injured by corporations, under the guise of limiting "frivolous" litigation one of the proposed bills would make it harder for you to obtain any compensation from a company whose negligence killed your family pet. 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. ALEC's corporate-politician bills would make it very difficult for a person to recover any damages for the loss of their beloved pet due to negligence in safely manufacturing pet food.

Helpful Information on the Tort "Reform" Agenda

link

Add information about corporate ghostwriting here.

Related ALEC Exposed Articles

ALEC's Pharmaceutical Companies Also Pushed for Changes to Other Aspects of Health Law

Here are some of the other substantive issues VOTED on by corporations via ALEC that affect American's health:

  • PLACEHOLDER our article on workers comp changes is linked here,
  • our article on other corporate loopholes goes here.

ALEC Corporations Involved in Blocking U.S. Health Insurance Reforms

Corporations that VOTED FOR Blocking Insurance Reform through the "Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development" Task Force

The following corporations are known to have been on ALEC's "Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development" Task Force that VOTED FOR efforts to block health insurance reforms. (This list is incomplete; if you know of additional corporations that have been involved in trying to rewrite personal injury law this through ALEC, please add that information to this section.)


ALEC Connections to David and Charles Koch and Koch Industries

Short summary of Koch connections and links go here. Did you know Koch Industries was the Chairman of ALEC's "Private Enterprise Board?"

ALEC "Alum" Scott Walker Pushes ALEC's Anti-Health Reform Agenda

Short summary of 2011 legislation and links go here.

Spotlight on Bayer and other "Leaders" of this Task Force

Short summary and links go here.


Do You Know Which Corporations Have Served as Leaders of ALEC?

Links to corporations that have sat on ALEC's "Private Enterprise Board" go here.

Corporate Politicians on ALEC's "Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development" Task Force

Here Is a List of Politicians Who Served on the "Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development" Task Force

(This list is incomplete; if you know of other politicians who have served on this ALEC Task Force, please add that information.)

Here Is a List of Politicians Who Have Introduced or Sponsored Bills from the "Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development" Task Force

(This list is incomplete; if you know of other politicians who have served on this ALEC Task Force, please add that information.)

Here Is a List of the Politicians Who Have Served on ALEC's Board

"Model" bills VOTED on by corporations and politicians on ALEC's task forces are also adopted by ALEC's board of "public officials," which is advised by its corporate board. Here are the names of politicians that have been "leaders" of ALEC's board: (This list is incomplete; if you know of other politicians who have served on this ALEC Task Force, please add that information.)

Is This Agenda Really "Conservative?"

A Corporate Agenda Masquerading as "Conservative"

You can share the link to this page on Facebook, Twitter, or via email to help your family and friends better understand how global corporations are working to rewrite your rights under the guise of supposed "conservative" ideals. PLACEHOLDER There is nothing in the founding principles of our nation that justifies elected officials in our democracy serving as handmaidens to global corporations rather than serving the citizens who elected them to "establish justice" and "promote the general welfare" of We the People under our Constitution. ALEC's corporations and politicians have sought to change the rules for injured Americans using rhetoric about protecting the "free market" but PLACEHOLDER.

What's Wrong with Blocking Health Insurance Reforms??

Here's what people are saying about ALEC's agenda</big>

Add select quotes here or swap in different section. PLACEHOLDER text: You can also share the link to this page on Facebook, Twitter, or via email to help your family and friends better understand how global corporations are working to rewrite your rights under the guise of supposed "conservative" ideals. There is nothing in the founding principles of our nation that justifies elected officials in our democracy serving as handmaidens to global corporations rather than serving the citizens who elected them to "establish justice" and "promote the general welfare" of We the People, not the corporations.

ALEC Exposed is a project of the Center for Media and Democracy. CMD does NOT accept donations from for-profit corporations or government agencies. You can contact the publisher of ALEC Exposed, CMD's Executive Director, Lisa Graves, via editor AT prwatch.org.

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