Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Court rejects case on AIDS, insurance Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:13:22 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Court rejects case on AIDS, insurance \BY Nancy E. Roman \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Supreme Court refused yesterday to review a ruling that allows self-insured employers to cut off or limit coverage for treatment of AIDS and other catastrophic illnesses. Over objections by Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Harry Blackmun, the court refused to consider a lower court's decision that federal pension laws allow such actions by employers. "This sends a message to corporate America that it is OK to restrict these benefits for people with AIDS," said Steve Taravella, associate director of the American Association of Physicians for Human Rights in San Fransisco. "Many physicians are already reluctant to treat people with AIDS. This makes them less willing to do so." Richard Samp, chief counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation, said the high court was correct in its decision not to consider the case. "Everyone agrees that employers are facing tremendous costs trying to pay insurance coverage for their employees," he said. "So long as no distinct group is discriminated against, it seems to me that an employer ought to have broad discretion to decide what coverage it wants to provide." Mr. Taravella said the cost of AIDS treatment - which averages about $75,000 per patient - is much lower than the cost of treating some other illnesses, such as those involving organ transplants. "If they are permitted to single out AIDS, then what is next?" he asked. "Will we see employers eliminating coverage for leukemia or other cancers?" The case involves John McGann, a warehouse employee for H&H Music Co. in Houston who learned in 1987 that he had contracted AIDS. He died of the disease last year. At the time, his medical insurance provided up to $1 million to cover catastrophic illness. Several months later, however, H&H Music switched to self-insurance and reduced coverage for AIDS-related costs to $5,000, leaving the $1 million coverage in place for other illnesses. Texas insurance law would have prevented such a change, but the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) allows self-insured businesses to reduce coverage for any ailment in the name of cost cutting. Mr. McGann sued, charging that the switch in benefits violated the portion of ERISA that prohibits discrimination against an employee "for exercising any right to which he is entitled under the provisions of an employee benefit plan." A federal judge threw out the suit and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in November, saying that Mr. McGann's allegations showed no promised benefit. The court said "there is nothing to indicate that [H&H Music] ever promised that the $1 million coverage limit was permanent." Mr. McGann's coverage ran out in early 1990. In other action, the court: * Turned down the appeal of a Ku Klux Klan leader convicted and sentenced to death for what prosecutors said was the random killing of a black man in Mobile, Ala., 11 years ago. The court left intact rulings that Henry F. Hays received a fair trial and a proper sentence. Hays, identified in court documents as an Exalted Cyclops in the KKK, was convicted of the March 1981 murder of Michael Donald. Prosecutors said he and an accomplice drove around Mobile the night of the crime "looking for a black man to hang." * Agreed to decide in a Florida case whether federal judges may treat a convicted felon's possession of a gun during his crime as a "crime of violence" that justifies a stiffer sentence. * Refused to revive an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against a Michigan auto parts manufacturer that required all its employees to undergo drug testing. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM