I have been meaning to come back to some issues concerning the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act, the state’s potentially groundbreaking attempt to combine individual, employer and government roles to provide health insurance coverage for most of the Commonwealth’s uninsured, and now seems like a good time to do so, with its effective date coming
Health Insurance
More Recommended Reading: The Cavalcade of Risk
The Cavalcade of Risk: 1st Anniversary Edition, is now up at Insure Blog. Noting that “it was a year ago this week that we published the first Cav,” Insure Blog explains that the Cav is intended as a round up “of interesting/unusual risk-related posts from around the blogosphere.” One of my posts is up…
Preemption and Health Insurance Benefits
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Health Insurance, Preemption
Maryland has given up the fight over its Wal-Mart bill, which essentially targeted Wal-Mart and tried to force it to increase the health care benefits provided to its employees; as many of you will recall, the Fourth Circuit and the district court both found the act to be preempted by ERISA. Most commentators, including this…
The Idea of Single Payer Health Insurance
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Health Insurance
Well, health insurance really isn’t a major focus of this blog, although we do comment on it from time to time, and it certainly touches on both focuses of this blog, ERISA and insurance. Employer provided health insurance has always done well by me and mine, so I don’t really have a vested interest in…
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Law Department
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Health Insurance
This is insurance – health insurance, anyway – and health insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield will often be provided under an ERISA governed plan. So, although it may not be all that edifying on anything we discuss on this blog, I nonetheless feel obliged to pass along a link to this article, which…
Health Insurance without the Insurance?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Health Insurance
For those of you who find the health part of health insurance more interesting than the insurance part, David Harlow has a health care law blog out detailing health law issues in Massachusetts. David has been heavily involved in the state regulation of health care in Massachusetts for many years. Thanks to Robert Ambrogi for…
Fielder’s Tentacles
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Health Insurance, Preemption
While I have been focused on the interior life, if you will, of the decision in Retail Industry Leaders Association v. Fielder – its reasoning, whether it was correctly decided – others have been focused more on the impact of the decision outside the state of Maryland. Jerry Kalish of the Retirement Plan Blog has…
Wal-Mart, Maryland and the Fair Share Act
By Stephen Rosenberg on
The United States District Court for the District of Maryland issued its opinion yesterday on the legal challenge to the Fair Share Act, the Maryland statute recently enacted for the purpose of forcing Wal-Mart, and only Wal-Mart, to increase its health care spending for its employees. Major media accounts of the ruling are here,…
Part D, Medicare and Economic Distortions
By Stephen Rosenberg on
The New York Times provides an excellent report today on the impact of Medicare Part D and the unintended – maybe(?) – result of moving millions of lower income patients from Medicaid to Medicare. The article points out that drug company profits will increase significantly because the patients are moved from Medicaid, which has certain…