SWACCA and Its Labor and Employer Partners Submit Letter Urging Congress to Reject Efforts to Weaken or Eliminate ERISA Preemption
SWACCA worked with its labor and employer partners to develop a letter joined by more than 40 employer and labor groups that asks Congress to preserve federal ERISA preemption of state and local regulation of health plans that allows multiemployer health plans to offer uniform benefits across the country. The letter explains that ERISA preemption has been critical to the ability of employers and labor unions to offer their workers reduced premiums and more robust benefits for over five decades by directly paying employee health claims through self-funded health plans. The letter also highlights that weakening or eliminating ERISA preemption protection for health plans will open the door to state-by-state regulation that would increase premiums for plan participants and compliance costs for plan sponsors. It would also stifle the ability of employers and plans to engage in innovative and value-based care delivery and benefit design, which can drive better health outcomes and lower out-of-pocket costs.
Signatories to the letter include, among others, the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC), and SWACCA’s Construction Employers of America ally The Association of Union Constructors (TAUC). The full letter is available here for review.
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