In decades of representing policyholders in long term disability insurance matters, I have seen the tremendous toll that unfair and bad faith claims denials can take on innocent people: foreclosures, bankruptcies, uprooted families, destroyed lives . . . .
It’s bad enough when the remedies for these problems take years to obtain; but it’s much worse when there are no adequate remedies under the law at all. That is exactly what the legal doctrine called ERISA Preemption has done. It has eliminated all of the rights policyholders have under the Unfair Claims Practices Acts enacted by states like California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida and has nullified or displaced them with federal laws—which provide no adequate remedies or protections whatsoever.
In writing Preemption, it is my hope that policyholders and policymakers alike would be able to better understand what is going on in the world of insurance law and to appreciate the urgent need for legislative reform.
Preemption:A License to Steal Your Medical/LTD Benefits