Health Care Compact – Bringing Health Care Decisions to the State Level

What is an Interstate Compact?

An Interstate Compact is a contractual arrangement made between two or more states in which the assigned parties agree on a specific policy issue and either adopt a set of standards or cooperate with one another on a particular regional or national matter.

Interstate Compacts are considered to be the “the most powerful, durable, and adaptive tools for ensuring cooperative action among the states.” ^[1] The reasoning for this belief is that, unlike federally imposed mandates, interstate compacts are neither bogged down with stringent bureaucratic requirements nor are they backed by empty funds from a centralized source. Although there are a variety of reasons for an interstate compact to be enacted, the cause for their popularity is two-fold – they afford states the ability to act jointly outside the constraints of the federal government while at the same time respecting the concept of appropriate joint action imposed by Congress.

According to the Council of State Governments, from 1935-2010, about 150 interstate compacts have been created and the average state belongs to 25 of them.  A spokesperson for the group says, “[I]nterstate compacts have typically been used…to stave off federal intervention into an area traditionally reserved for the states (Source Ballotpedia)

Why a Health Care Compact? 

Many Americans are concerned about the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress and enacted in March, 2010.  In light of the recent Supreme Court decision ruling for the Constitutionality of the Law, only 11% of businesses are waiting until after the election to plan for the changes.

Instead, many state and local governments are looking for ways to avoid the costly changes in this law.  This is where the Health Care Compact comes into play.  The Health Care Compact will use the power of compacts to devlove the power to control helath care at the Federal level and bring it back to the states by block granting the money to the states to allocate as they see fit.

To see which states are moving forward with this legislation take a look at the post that Ballotpedia has done to explain and track it’s progress.

What do YOU think?