Pay or Play State Mandated Health Care Coverage and Barriers Caused by ERISA
The weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal, dated July 7-8, 2007, reported on how ERISA might serve as a bar to state mandated pay or play strategies for insurance coverage. If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, you can read how under the pay or play concept, employers must either provide health insurance or contribute to a fund subsidizing insurance coverage for those who cannot afford it. ERISA has been criticized for prohibiting states (based on federal preemption) from imposing state rules on multiemployer health plans.
