Employer-Based Health Plans: Issues, Trends, and Challenges Posed by ERISA

Pursuant to congressional requests, GAO provided information on the: (1) Employee Retirement Income Security Act's (ERISA) relationship to the current system of employer-based health coverage; (2) implications of the trend toward employer self-funding on the oversight of employees' health care coverage; (3) kinds of state actions preempted by ERISA; and (4) advantages of ERISA preemption to employers that offer health care coverage to their workers.