How to find ERISA sections in the actual bill?

[pcm2a]

This may be common sense to everyone else, but there are many articles online talking companies not being able to offer their current plans and having to switch to the new plans. This all related to the ERISA stuff.

What I would like to know is where can I see the actuall healthcare reform bill and where can I find these sections that detail this out? My Democrat friends say that the articles are lies.

These are the articles:
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203946904574298661486528186.html
money.cnn.com/2009/07/24/news/economy/health_care_reform_obama.fortune/ (Only point 4)
biztimes.com/blogs/milwaukee-biz-blog/2009/7/30/obamas-health-care-plan-would-gut-erisa

Does anyone know where to find the actual bill or how to find the sections that these articles reference?

 

[veritas]

Which Bill?

The Senate Finance Committee one is here:

http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/leg/LEG 2009/122409_PPACA_as_passed.pdf

 

[Chaze]

I know the anti-reform talking points are that any efforts to disseminate the truth are liberally biased, but there it is.

In July, Investor’s Business Daily published an editorial in which it claimed that H.R. 3200 would make private insurance illegal. But IBD was mistaken.

FactCheck.org - Google 'Seven Falsehoods Health Care', I can't post the link at my post count.

 

[veritas]

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans.

ERISA requires plans to provide participants with plan information including important information about plan features and funding; provides fiduciary responsibilities for those who manage and control plan assets; requires plans to establish a grievance and appeals process for participants to get benefits from their plans; and gives participants the right to sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty.

There have been a number of amendments to ERISA, expanding the protections available to health benefit plan participants and beneficiaries. One important amendment, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), provides some workers and their families with the right to continue their health coverage for a limited time after certain events, such as the loss of a job. Another amendment to ERISA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which provides important new protections for working Americans and their families who have preexisting medical conditions or might otherwise suffer discrimination in health coverage based on factors that relate to an individual's health. Other important amendments include the Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act, the Mental Health Parity Act, and the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act.

In general, ERISA does not cover group health plans established or maintained by governmental entities, churches for their employees, or plans which are maintained solely to comply with applicable workers compensation, unemployment, or disability laws. ERISA also does not cover plans maintained outside the United States primarily for the benefit of nonresident aliens or unfunded excess benefit plans.

U.S. Department of Labor - Find It By Topic - Health Plans - ERISA