WASHINGTON, June 28, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today's Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) highlights the fact that the federal government "is in way over its head on health care," according to Eric O'Keefe, chairman of the Health Care Compact Alliance (HCCA), which supports state-level solutions to health care policy. "Should health care decisions affecting 315 million people depend on the decisions of a few judges or even on Congress?" asks O'Keefe. "No."
"Our health care problems cannot be solved as long as decisions about them are made by politicians, bureaucrats and even Supreme Court justices at the federal level in Washington, D.C.," O'Keefe said in a statement released today. "These officials, after all, are part of the same political establishment that got us into this mess. We won't get out of it until these decisions are made at the state level, by the people themselves. We must fix the governance problem—the problem of who decides—before we can fix the policy problem of what is decided."
As of June 25, seven states—Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Utah, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas—have already passed legislation that, pending congressional approval, empowers them to create health care compacts with other states—or to act on their own—to establish their own health care systems. Under this approach, which HCCA supports, states would receive in the form of block grants federal dollars for mandatory spending on health care programs of their own choosing.
"Some states or coalitions of states might choose free-market systems, while others will prefer single-payer systems," O'Keefe said. "Whatever they decide, these states understand that no one-size-fits all policy imposed Washington can work for 315 million people who live from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Fairbanks, Alaska.
"But when the decisions are made closer to home—at the state level—the people will be able to create workable, creative and efficient alternatives to the ACA."
O'Keefe noted that the Ryan Plan for Medicare and Medicaid reform—supposedly supported by key congressional leaders from both parties—is also based on the flawed notion that the solutions to our health care problems are to be found at the federal level. "The Ryan Plan leaves Congress at the center of power, and senior citizens vulnerable to the whims, threats and manipulations of ambitious politicians," said O'Keefe.
Dozens of states have already set up health insurance exchanges as a way to protect themselves from increasing federal intrusion, while more than 1,400 businesses and non-profits have received waivers to enable them to opt out of portions of the ACA.
"Only the people, acting through elected officials close to home, will be able to come up with approaches that address their own unique health care challenges, which vary widely throughout the United States," O'Keefe said.
The Health Care Compact approach recognizes the states as "laboratories of democracy," where the people can devise creative solutions to complex problems, experiment with them, and learn what works and what doesn't, so others can adopt successful models.
"The future of workable, efficient health care policy in this country will not be found in the Congress or courts of the Capital" O'Keefe said. "Our health care problems are first and foremost problems of governance—of who decides—rather than of policy. Until power is pulled back to the states, the problems will only get worse. Unlike today's Beltway elites, we at the Health Care Compact Alliance trust the people to govern themselves."
Contact: Curtis Ellis 917.861.2233 curtiswellis@gmail.com
The Health Care Compact Alliance is a non-partisan section 501(c)(4) organization providing tools that enable citizens to exert greater control over their government. The Health Care Compact was developed to offer Americans more influence over decisions that govern health care.
Health Care Compact Alliance
www.healthcarecompact.org
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