RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be forwarded by the Department of
Legislative Services to the chief corporate officers of the Maersk, Inc. and, Sea-Land
Service, Inc Inc., the CSX Railroad, and the Norfolk Southern Railroad.

Signed May 27, 1999.

Joint Resolution No. 5
(Senate Joint Resolution No. 7)

A Senate Joint Resolution concerning

State Regulation of Self-Funded Employer-Based Health Plans

FOR the purpose of requesting the United States Congress to amend the Employment
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to authorize each state to
monitor and to regulate self-funded employer-based health plans and to make a
specific amendment to the ERISA; urging other state legislatures to enact a
resolution similar to this resolution; and directing a copy of this resolution to be
forwarded to certain individuals.

WHEREAS, The McCarran-Ferguson Act, passed by the U. S. Congress in 1945,
established a statutory framework whereby responsibility for regulating insurance
and the insurance industry was left largely to the states; and

WHEREAS, The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA)
significantly altered this concept by creating a federal framework for regulating
employer-based pension and welfare benefit plans, including health plans; and

WHEREAS, ERISA effectively prohibits states from directly regulating many
employer-based health plans because ERISA preempts state regulation of
self-insured plans; and

WHEREAS, Available data suggests that self-funding of employer-based health
plans is increasing at a significant rate among both small and large businesses; and

WHEREAS, Between 1989 and 1993, the United States General Accounting
Office estimates that the number of self-funded plan enrollees increased by about
6,000,000 individuals; and

WHEREAS, Approximately 40% to 50% of employer-based health plans are
presently self-funded by employers that retain most or all of the financial risk for
their respective health plans; and

WHEREAS, With the growth in the self-funding of health plans, states have
lost regulatory oversight over a growing portion of the health market; and

WHEREAS, Recent federal court decisions have struck down state laws
regulating insured health plans by expanding ERISA's current preemption of state
laws regulating self-insured plans to laws relating to insured plans; and