Another view of Miller.

• Author: Coffman, William S., Jr.
• Position: Letters - Letter to the Editor

Daniel Alter's letter in the March Bar Journal regarding the impact of the displacement of the McCarran-Ferguson factors in Kentucky Ass'n of Health Plans v. Miller, 123 S. Ct. 1471 (2003), on ERISA litigation described in Mr. Mazer's January article presents an over-simplified universe in which insurance companies would like to do business.

The entire jurisprudence of ERISA preemption rests on construction of the McCarran-Ferguson factors by the Supreme Court, the circuit courts, and district courts. By basing its central holding on a replacement of the McCarran-Ferguson factors, the Supreme Court empowered every district court and every circuit court in the nation to re-examine the relationship between the power of the state government to regulate conduct within its borders and the power of the federal government to displace that right through comprehensive and systematic regulation.

The tension between these powers has constitutional dimensions, both on the state and federal level. The question is not whether three courts have decided the...