Petition Status

BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF ALASKA

The Consumer1s Access to Competitive Health Care Act

“An Act amending the certificate of need requirement to apply only to facilities providing long term nursing home beds and residential psychiatric treatment centers.”

Whereas: high and ever-rising health care costs are hurting Alaskan families, raising workers’ compensation costs, putting health care insurance out of economic range for individuals and companies, and raising Medicaid and Medicare costs throughout Alaska;

And whereas: it is an accepted premise that competition brings higher quality services and lower prices to consumers;

And whereas: Alaska’s certificate of need program needlessly limits medical choices for Alaskans and prevents competitive, lower prices for Alaskans through prohibitive government regulation;

And whereas: the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission have both identified certificate of need regulations as a major driver of rising health care costs in the United States for the states that maintain these regulations;

And whereas: a majority of states in the United States either have no certificate of need regulations or limit them only to long-term nursing home beds to help control government costs;

Therefore, be it enacted by the People of Alaska:
Repeal 18.07.041 Standard of Review for Applications for Certificates of Need Relating to non-nursing Home beds and Services.

Section 18.07.111 Definitions is amended to read:

(8) “health care facility’ means a long-term nursing home or a facility providing nursing home beds or a residential psychiatric treatment facility.

Title 18 Chapter 7 Certificate on Need is further amended to provide conforming amendments to reflect the changes in the definition of health care facility.