Source: https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/471-u-s-724-604989578
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 20:52:47+00:00

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shall be deemed to be an insurance company or other insurer . . . or to be engaged in the business of insurance . . . for purposes of any law of any State purporting to regulate insurance companies [or] insurance contracts.
Appellant insurer in No. 84-356 contends that § 47B, as applied to insurance policies purchased pursuant to collective bargaining agreements regulated by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), is preempted by that Act, because it effectively imposes a contract term on the parties that otherwise would be a mandatory subject of collective bargaining. Massachusetts brought an action in Massachusetts Superior Court to enforce § 47B against appellant insurers, and that court issued an injunction requiring the insurers to provide the coverage mandated by § 47B. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, finding no preemption under either ERISA or the NLRA.
§ 514(a) as it applies to insurance contracts purchased for plans subject to ERISA. Section 514(b)(2)(A)'s plain language, its relationship to the other ERISA preemption provisions, and the traditional understanding of insurance regulations, all lead to the conclusion that mandated benefit laws such as § 47B are saved from preemption by the operation of § 514(b)(2)(A). Nothing in ERISA's legislative history suggests a different result. Pp. 739-747.
2. Nor is § 47B, as applied to a plan negotiated pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement subject to the NLRA, preempted by the NLRA. Pp. 747-758.
(a) The NLRA preemption involved here is the one that protects against state interference with policies implicated by the structure of the NLRA itself, by preempting state law and state causes of action concerning conduct that Congress intended to be unregulated. Pp. 747-751.
(b) Such preemption rests on a sound understanding of the NLRA's purpose and operation that is incompatible with the view that the NLRA preempts any state attempt to impose minimum benefit terms on the parties to a collective bargaining agreement. Pp. 751-753.
(c) Minimum state labor standards affect union and nonunion employees equally, and neither encourage nor discourage the collective bargaining processes that are the subject of the NLRA. Nor do they have any but the most indirect effect on the right of self-organization established in the NLRA. Unlike the NLRA, mandated benefit laws such as § 47B are not designed to encourage or discourage employees in the promotion of their interests collectively; rather, they are in part designed to give minimum protections to individual employees and to ensure that each employee covered by the NLRA receives mandated health insurance coverage. These laws are minimum standards independent of the collective bargaining process. Pp. 753-756.
not limit the right of self-organization or collective bargaining protected by the NLRA. Pp. 756-758.
391 Mass. 730, 46:3 N.E.2d 548, affirmed.
BLACKMUN, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which all other Members joined, except POWELL, J., who took no part in the decision of the cases.
A Massachusetts statute requires that specified minimum mental health care benefits be provided a Massachusetts resident who is insured under a general insurance policy, an accident or sickness insurance policy, or an employee health care plan that covers hospital and surgical expenses. The first question before us in these cases is whether the state statute, as applied to insurance policies purchased by employee health care plans regulated by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, is preempted by that Act. The second question is whether the state statute, as applied to insurance policies purchased pursuant to negotiated collective bargaining agreements regulated by the National Labor Relations Act, is preempted by the labor Act.
regulation of the carrier, regulation of the sale and advertising of the insurance, and regulation of the content of the contracts.2 Mandated benefit laws, that require an insurer to provide a certain kind of benefit to cover a specified illness or procedure whenever someone purchases a certain kind of insurance, are a subclass of such content regulation.
Section 47B was designed to address problems encountered in treating mental illness in Massachusetts. The Commonwealth determined that its working people needed to be protected against the high cost of treatment for such illness. It also believed that, without insurance, mentally ill workers were often institutionalized in large state mental hospitals, and that mandatory insurance would lead to a higher incidence of more effective treatment in private community mental health centers. See Massachusetts General Court, Joint Committee on Insurance, Advances in Health [105 S.Ct. 2385] Insurance in Massachusetts (1974), reprinted in App. 426, 430-432.

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