ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) was created to establish uniform federal standards to protect private employee pension plans from fraud and mismanagement. But the federal statute also covers most other types of employee benefits plans, including health plans. Several of ERISA's provisions preempt state laws and complicate state efforts to make health care coverage more broadly available. The courts' interpretation of ERISA and the cases that have come before the courts have changed over the years.

Patricia Butler, J.D., Dr.P.H., a leading national authority on ERISA and its implications for states, was the featured speaker of this Cyber Seminar. This Web-based audio conference was co-sponsored by the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) and the State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) program. Alice Burton, director of SCI, Enrique Martinez-Vidal, deputy director of SCI, and Alan Weil, NASHP's executive director, participated in the discussion.

• Background Materials
• Presentation
• Archived Session (ZIP File, 17 MB)
  1) Download the archive zip file onto your desktop
  2) Open the folder and click "Shellout"- This will launch the unzip application
  3) Save unzipped folder onto desktop
  4) Click Play