Date, Location, Cite: 1995 NY
115 S. Ct. 1671, 514 U.S. 645
US SUPREME COURT
This is very complicated - ERISA is the Employee's Retirement Insurance Security Act,
and its purpose is to protect retirement plans. Since retirement plans often fund health
insurance, they wind up under ERISA. (You can't sue an ERISA entity in state court,
because Federal Law prohibits it, for example) In this case, NY added a surcharge to all
hospital bills except those of Blue Cross patients. Travelers and some HMOs sued, saying
that discriminated in the choices ERISA plans could make. The Supreme Court, however,
decided that the NY surcharge was an INDIRECT charge, and therefore was not
discriminatory, in this particular case such as to cause a Federal pre-emption of state
law.
[JFH-This is as I understand it - ERISA is complex and renders some laws nugatory]
