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