Court Opinion

ID: 9522355
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:23:41.779314+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:02:38.873631
License: Public Domain

*736Wilkins, J.
(dissenting). I disagree with the court’s conclusion that ERISA does not preempt the mandate of G. L. c. 175, § 47B, as to minimum mental health care coverage under certain insurance policies. The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, 463 U.S. 85 (1983), indicates forcefully that that Court would not grant wide scope to the insurance exception expressed in ERISA § 514 (b) (2) (A). Id. at 104. The Shaw opinion tells us that exemptions, and, I think, exceptions from preemption are to be read narrowly because a contrary view would destroy the option of a multistate employer to have a uniform ERISA plan and because any special State requirement for a disability plan could be provided as a separate administrative unit. Id. at 105-108.
General Laws c. 175, § 47B, is not a law “which regulates insurance” within the meaning of ERISA § 514 (b) (2) (A). As applied to employers, § 47B concerns health benefits that an employer must provide, by insurance or otherwise, if the employer provides any such benefits at all, and as to employee benefits § 47B only incidentally regulates insurance. Section 47B represents precisely that form of local intrusion on ERISA covered benefit plans that ERISA intends to prevent. See Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Kramarsky, 725 F.2d 146, 148 (2d Cir. 1983). Congress has adopted an all-inclusive preemption scheme, and it is now clear, in light of the Shaw opinion, that it is irrelevant whether State law dictating plan benefits conflicts with the substantive policies of ERISA.