Employers voluntarily offer health plans to their employees.
The best protection for plan participants is a sound claims review process, not litigation and tort damages. Participants can be protected without resorting to tort damages. Exposing health plans to both federal and state tort liability, as many patient protection bills do, is more costly and less effective than any of the available alternatives for protecting plan participants. The direct participation standard contained in many patient protection bills in fact exposes employers to lawsuits. Even a small probability of being sued will be more than enough to reason for many employers to stop offering coverage.