HJR 14: Requesting the United States Congress and the Governor to take actions necessary to delay implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 14 01 Requesting the United States Congress and the Governor to take actions necessary to 02 delay implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS, on March 23, 2010, the President of the United States and the 05 Democratic majority in the United States Congress, voting mainly along party lines, passed 06 H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148), a monumental 07 expansion of government in the United States; and 08 WHEREAS the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides for 09 implementation over a period of years; and 10 WHEREAS implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will lead to 11 a massive takeover of the health care industry, increase health care costs, result in higher 12 taxes, destroy jobs, reduce the quality of health care, decrease the number of individuals 13 buying private insurance, and impair the ability of businesses to grow, compete, and create 14 jobs in the state; and 15 WHEREAS the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act could cause 10,000,000 16 Americans who currently receive health insurance through their employers to lose this
01 coverage; and 02 WHEREAS, if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is implemented, health 03 insurance premiums for those currently receiving health insurance through their employers 04 will increase by 10 to 13 percent; and 05 WHEREAS Alaska's two largest health insurance providers, Premera Blue Cross 06 Blue Shield of Alaska and Aetna Life Insurance Company, both plan to increase premiums 07 between 30 and 80 percent for individual policies if the Patient Protection and Affordable 08 Care Act is implemented; and 09 WHEREAS the total estimated cost of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 10 is estimated to be at least $2,600,000,000,000, nearly three times greater than the estimated 11 cost originally stated by President Obama in 2009; and 12 WHEREAS it is projected that the Act will lead to the loss of 800,000 jobs in the 13 United States by the end of the decade; and 14 WHEREAS, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, health insurance 15 will cost individuals an average of $2,500 a year more than the cost of insurance under the 16 current system of traditional health insurance; and 17 WHEREAS the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will increase the overall 18 cost of health care for families and employers; and 19 WHEREAS, since its enactment, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has 20 cost American employers and employees, including employers and employees in Alaska, 21 billions of dollars in higher health insurance premiums; and 22 WHEREAS the new investment tax for employee-provided health insurance under 23 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, at the proposed rate of 2.9 percent, would 24 lower household disposable income by $17,300,000,000 a year; and 25 WHEREAS new taxes imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 26 have eliminated jobs since the bill was passed and will continue to eliminate jobs in industries 27 providing health insurance; and 28 WHEREAS taxes imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are 29 burdensome to employers; and 30 WHEREAS Darden Restaurants, Inc., which operates Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and 31 five other restaurant chains, has transferred nearly 75 percent of the chain's employees from
01 full-time to part-time status in an attempt to limit the number of employees for whom health 02 insurance is mandated under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and 03 WHEREAS McDonald's USA Corporation is considering many options, including 04 reducing the number of its full-time employees, to reduce the effects of health care costs 05 under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and 06 WHEREAS an executive with White Castle, Inc., and the National Restaurant 07 Association told the Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the United States 08 House of Representatives that uncertainty and the projected 28 percent increase in health care 09 cost to the restaurant industry under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has 10 limited the industry's ability to create jobs; and 11 WHEREAS the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act imposes 21 new or higher 12 taxes on families and businesses in Alaska and nationwide, including 12 taxes on families 13 making less than $250,000 a year; and 14 WHEREAS the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes a health 15 insurance tax which is a tax on the net premiums for health insurance companies that will 16 raise the cost to already struggling small businesses of providing health insurance because the 17 tax burden will be passed on to the consumer; and 18 WHEREAS, to implement and enforce mandated health insurance coverage under the 19 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the role of government will be expanded through 20 the creation of 159 new federal bureaucracies and the hiring of 16,000 new government 21 agents; and 22 WHEREAS 12 percent of small business employers have either had their health 23 insurance plans terminated or have been told that their plans would not be available in the 24 future because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and 25 WHEREAS one survey has found that 20 percent of small employers that currently 26 offer health insurance coverage to their employees expect to change their benefits packages 27 significantly, including raising the employee share of health insurance costs, the next time 28 they renew their health insurance plans; and 29 WHEREAS changes in employee benefits resulting from the Patient Protection and 30 Affordable Care Act will decrease health insurance benefits and coverage while increasing 31 employees' share of the cost of health insurance; and
01 WHEREAS small businesses, by employing tens of millions of workers, make up the 02 backbone of the economies of the state and the nation; and 03 WHEREAS, because small employers create the vast majority of jobs, placing 04 additional burdens on small businesses hampers expansion of the economy and the job 05 creation needed to allow our economy to recover and grow; and 06 WHEREAS the Obama Administration admits that tens of millions of Americans are 07 at risk of losing their health care coverage; and 08 WHEREAS, of the tens of millions of Americans at risk of losing their health care 09 coverage as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, 80 percent work for 10 small businesses under insurance plans at risk of being lost; and 11 WHEREAS, before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted, a 12 survey of American businesses found that approximately 30 percent of small businesses in the 13 United States anticipated dropping people from coverage if the Patient Protection and 14 Affordable Care Act became law; and 15 WHEREAS, since the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 16 2010, more than 13,000 pages of federal government regulations have been adopted to 17 implement the Act; and 18 WHEREAS regulations implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 19 have already caused great uncertainty, slowing economic growth and limiting hiring 20 opportunities for approximately 13,000,000 unemployed Americans; and 21 WHEREAS the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act places an additional 22 burden on small business owners by requiring them to file additional tax information for each 23 vendor from whom they purchase goods and services each year; and 24 WHEREAS, beginning in 2016, the penalty for an individual with health insurance 25 that does not meet the currently undefined "minimum essential coverage" required by the 26 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be $695 or 2.5 percent of the individual's 27 annual income, whichever is greater; and 28 WHEREAS the projected cost for the state to establish and operate the health 29 insurance exchange program mandated under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 30 will exceed the amount of revenue generated by the program and will require either additional 31 funding from the state general fund or increased fees to be paid by consumers; and
01 WHEREAS the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expands the role of 02 government and controls one-sixth of the nation's economy; and 03 WHEREAS the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act expands Medicaid 04 without any significant reform, leaving the state to assume an unsustainable financial burden; 05 and 06 WHEREAS the required expansion of Medicaid under the Patient Protection and 07 Affordable Care Act will cause the number of Alaskans covered by the program to increase 08 by at least 30 percent; 09 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature calls on the United States 10 Congress to pass legislation to delay the implementation of the Patient Protection and 11 Affordable Care Act until a full analysis of the Act's economic effects, including job losses in 12 the state, can be clearly quantified; and be it 13 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature will not support 14 implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act until it can be shown that 15 the Act does not significantly raise business costs and does not create considerable economic 16 uncertainty; and be it 17 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the 18 Governor to take actions necessary to delay the implementation of the Patient Protection and 19 Affordable Care Act in the state to protect Alaskans and the state's economy from the onerous 20 taxes and regulations contained in the law. 21 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 22 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and 23 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of 24 Representatives; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader of the U.S. House of 25 Representatives; the Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the 26 Honorable Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate; and the Honorable Lisa 27 Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, 28 U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.