Enact the Senate Bill, but Demand National Health Care Reform Implementation

One of the most important differences between the current House and Senate health reform bills is their approaches to the enforcement of the insurance reform provisions of the bill and to implementation of the health insurance exchanges. Briefly, the House bill would create a new federal agency, the Health Choices Administration, to enforce the insurance [...]

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). [...]

Constitutional Limits on Insurance Regulation

The following is part of a longer paper addressing legal and policy issues raised by health insurance exchanges, which will be presented at the O’Neill Center’s Legal Issues in Health Reform symposium on Monday, October 26. The health reform legislation pending in Congress would dramatically expand federal regulation of health insurance. Indeed, in most states [...]