ERISA Tort Preemption and HR 3962, Take Four

In recent days, Mark Hall, Richard Johnson, and Peter Jacobson have all offered opinions as to how HR 3962, if enacted, would affect ERISA preemption of state tort claims against insurers. Let me offer a fourth opinion. First, remember that ERISA tort liability preemption is based primarily on section 502 of ERISA (29 USC 1132). [...]

Is Stupak Constitutional?

As you all know, the House passed HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, late Saturday night, November 7, by a vote of 220 to 215. In doing so, it adopted a handful of amendments. The most important amendment was the Stupak amendment, which the House adopted by a vote of 240 to [...]

HR 3962, ERISA, HIPAA, McCarran-Ferguson, and State Law. How Does the Puzzle Fit Together?

Congress is not writing on a clean slate in enacting health care financing reform legislation. We already have, of course, massive federal health care programs: Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Hundreds of pages of the bills Congress is considering are consumed by amendments to the statutes governing these programs. The legislation [...]

Procedural Issues in HR 3962: Rather Disappointing

In my post of September 27, I observed that the legislation then under consideration in Congress—HR 3200 (the House tri-committee bill), the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) bill, and Baucus chairman’s mark—paid inadequate attention to important procedural issues. In my post of October 27, I noted that the Senate Finance bill had made [...]