What's wrong with the ERISA vacuum? Employers' freedom to limit health care coverage provided by risk retention plans

Article Abstract:

A 1992 Supreme Court decision highlights the consequences of the vacuum in health insurance regulation that is legislated by the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act (ERISA). The Court refused the appeal of an HIV-positive man whose employer terminated its existing insurance plan and implemented a new risk retention plan that reduced AIDS coverage from $1 million to $5,000. The ERISA vacuum prohibits state regulation of risk retention plans. This is significant because approximately 2/3 of the nation's employers that provide health care benefits do so through risk retention programs. The ERISA vacuum allows employers to restrict access to care, discriminate against employees according to medical condition and terminate health care coverage when patients need it most. This vacuum could be filled by prohibiting the termination or restriction of benefits to claimants, reforming the Americans with Disabilities Act and allowing states to regulate risk retention plans.

Planning, Health insurance

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Law as a tool to facilitate healthier lifestyles and prevent obesity

Article Abstract:

Governments can use law as a tool to prevent overweight and obesity in society, as a person's own behavior is often the root cause of the disease. Disclosure, tort liability, surveillance, regulation of food marketing to children and adolescents, taxation, school and workplace policies and food prohibitions are some of the legal interventions that can be used to control overweight and obesity.

Legal issues & crime, Government regulation (cont), Government regulation, Marketing, Legal/Government Regulation, Laws, regulations and rules, Prevention, Risk factors, Obesity, Tort liability

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