Minnesota Session Laws - 1988, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1988 

                       RESOLUTION 11-H.F.No. 1189 
 A resolution memoralizing the United States Congress 
to amend the Employment Retirement Security Act to 
permit the direct regulation of self-insured health 
care plans.  
    WHEREAS, most Americans receive health care coverage 
through employment-based health benefits, either as employees, 
employees' family members, or retirees; and 
    WHEREAS, the great importance of health care coverage for 
Americans requires regulatory oversight to protect consumers, 
ensure adequacy of coverage, promote access to coverage, and 
promote equitable competition; and 
    WHEREAS, the states have long held primary responsibility 
for overseeing health care coverage, a responsibility they 
exercise through regulating the business of health plan 
companies, including health insurance companies and health 
maintenance organizations; and 
    WHEREAS, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 
1974, or ERISA, permits the states to regulate the business of 
health plan companies, but prohibits the states from directly 
regulating self-insured health plans; and 
    WHEREAS, a large and increasing number of employers 
self-insure their employee health benefits, and so are not 
subject to direct oversight by the states for purposes of 
ensuring adequacy of coverage, promoting access to coverage, and 
promoting competition; and 
     WHEREAS, inequities detrimental to consumer protection and 
competition arise in the market for health plans because 
self-insured health benefits programs are not subject to the 
states' oversight and standards, unlike health benefits programs 
that purchase coverage from a health plan company; and 
     WHEREAS, a large and increasing number of Americans receive 
inadequate or no health care coverage even though they are 
employed, but ERISA prohibits the states from establishing 
requirements or tax incentives directly affecting employers that 
are intended to ensure adequate coverage or promote access to 
coverage; and 
     WHEREAS, in 1982 the United States Congress amended ERISA 
to allow Hawaii to continue its Prepaid Health Care Act, which 
requires most employers in Hawaii to provide health benefits, 
thereby demonstrating Congressional willingness to grant limited 
exemptions from ERISA to certain states in order to ensure 
adequacy of coverage or promote access to coverage; and 
     WHEREAS, the State of Minnesota could better discharge its 
responsibility for overseeing health care coverage if it were 
possible to obtain a limited exemption from ERISA allowing the 
state to establish requirements or tax incentives directly 
affecting employers that are intended to protect consumers, 
ensure adequate coverage, promote access to coverage, or promote 
competition; NOW, THEREFORE, 
    BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota 
that the United States Congress should amend the Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA, to establish 
standards or procedures whereby a state can obtain a limited 
exemption from the ERISA provisions that prohibit the states 
from regulating employment-based health benefits directly, so 
that the state could establish requirements or tax incentives 
directly affecting employers and employment-based health 
benefits that are intended to protect consumers, ensure adequate 
coverage, promote access to coverage, or promote competition.  
    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that such an exemption shall not 
apply to collectively bargained health and welfare plans without 
an affirmative action by the Minnesota Legislature. 
    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the 
State of Minnesota is directed to prepare certified copies of 
this resolution and present them to the President and Secretary 
of the United States Senate, the Speaker and Chief Clerk of the 
United States House of Representatives, and to Minnesota's 
Senators and Representatives in Congress. 
    Filed April 6, 1988