Bill Text: AZ HCR2026 | 2015 | Fifty-second Legislature 1st Regular | Introduced
Bill Title: Affordable care act; unenforceability
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-02-18 - Referred to House HEALTH Committee [HCR2026 Detail]
Download: Arizona-2015-HCR2026-Introduced.html
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REFERENCE TITLE: affordable care act; unenforceability |
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State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-second Legislature First Regular Session 2015
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HCR 2026 |
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Introduced by Representative Thorpe
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A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Declaring that the residents of Arizona who are enrolled under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are not eligible for subsidies.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Whereas, section 1311 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) directs states to establish health insurance exchanges, and section 1321 directs the federal government to establish exchanges within states that opt not to do so; and
Whereas, confounding expectations, thirty-six states chose not to establish exchanges; and
Whereas, section 1401 offers "premium-assistance tax credits" (subsidies) to individuals who meet certain requirements, including a requirement that they enroll in health insurance "through an [e]xchange established by the State under section 1311;" and
Whereas, a 2014 United States House of Representatives Joint Staff Report entitled "Administration Conducted Inadequate Review of Key Issues Prior to Expanding Health Law's Taxes and Subsidies" found that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) initially recognized the requirement that subsidies recipients must enroll through an [e]xchange "established by the State;" and
Whereas, despite its acknowledgment that only residents of states with state-run exchanges are eligible to receive subsidies, in January 2014, the IRS began issuing tax subsidies through both state-established and federal exchanges; and
Whereas, the text of the PPACA is clear, and while existing legal doctrines permit agencies to depart from clear statutory language in rare cases, none of those doctrines can rescue the IRS's statutory misconstruction; and
Whereas, Arizona is among the thirty-six states that chose not to establish a state-run exchange.
Therefore
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring:
1. That the Members of the Legislature declare that the residents of Arizona who are enrolled under the PPACA are not eligible for subsidies because Arizona did not establish a state-run exchange.
2. That the Members of the Legislature declare that Arizona businesses are exempt from the regulations, requirements and fines under the PPACA because Arizona chose not to establish a state-run exchange.
3. That the Secretary of State of the State of Arizona transmit copies of this Resolution to the Department of Health Services and the Arizona Commerce Authority for posting on each agency's website.
