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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE November 20, 1992
High court: Benefits can be cut after insured gets sick
On November 9, the U. S. Supreme Court refused to review a lower court decision that permitted an employer to drastically reduce an AIDS patient's medical benefits. This action has precedent-setting implications and can affect all employees covered by employer insurance plans who develop a catastrophic illness.
The case originated with the H & H Music Co. in Houston, which offered a selffunding insurance plan to its employees including a $1 million lifetime benefit cap. When employee John W. McGann was
Bush rally
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Republican Strongsville mayor and rally organizer Walter Ehrnfelt leased the city property to the Bush campaign for one dollar. The lease arrangement was made to ensure that the rally was held on “private property," in support of the Bush campaign's restrictions on attendees and signage. Mikolaj said, "I think it's important that the public is made aware of how serious this is: the City of Strongsville leasing public property for one dollar and then calling it private property. It shouldn't be allowed. I thinks that's really scary.' Schwitzgebel said security officers were aware of his sign when he was admitted. The Canton pastor's ministry reaches out to those in the HIV spectrum and educates the community on AIDS awareness and prevention. Schwitzgebel stated he did not act disruptively although he was at the rally to call attention to his cause. "My constitutional rights were sadly mistreated," he
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diagnosed with AIDS in late 1987 and began submitting claims for reimbursement, H & H Music changed its plan in August, 1988, to a maximum of $5,000 for AIDS related coverage. McGann brought suit in federal court. He died last year and his executor has continued the appeals process under the case name Greenberg v. H&H Music Co.
ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act), the federal law that governs employee benefits, bars employers from retaliating or discriminating against an
stated after his arrest.
Once escorted to the Strongsville police station, the Secret Service took over and began questioning the two men, according to attorney Cowger. "The questioning endured for several hours even after Paul requested an attorney as per his Sixth Ammendment right to counsel," he stated.
Bush supporters told police the two men were carrying AIDS tainted needles. The “needles” were actually red ribbons with pins they planned to pass out to promote AIDS awareness, not unlike the one worn by Cleveland's Mayor Mike White.
Additionally. television news footage and newspaper photographs taken at the rally do not show either man being disruptive.
Witnesses with information to contribute regarding the incident may contact attorney Al Cowger at 523-6865 or the ACLU at 781-6276.
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employee who files claims under a plan. More than 60 percent of Americans are insured under self-funding plans covered by the law.
The federal district court ruled in favor of the employer. The controversial federal appeals court decision, according to the Washington Post, said that "federal law does not stop certain employers from making sudden benefit changes to save themselves money, irrespective of whether individual situations triggered the cutbacks."
By refusing to review the ruling, the Supreme Court agrees with the lower court that the company's actions did not amount to discrimination or retaliation in violation of ERISA. It requires four Supreme Court justices to want to hear a case before it can be scheduled. Of the nine justices, only two, Harry A. Blackmun and Sandra Day O'Connor, requested to hear this case.
"Workers around the country now cannot be sure that their health insurance will be there when they need it," said Suzanne Goldberg, a staff attorney with Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund which represents Greenberg. "By refusing to hear this case, the Supreme Court leaves em-
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ployers free to avoid paying for benefits they have promised to employees simply by rewriting the benefit plan," Goldberg added.
The impact of the ruling threatens the health care of millions of Americans, since it is not specifically directed at AIDS insurance coverage. Lambda cooperating attor ney Joseph Garcia said, "the Court's deci sion leaves employees unable to rely on the law designed to protect them and unable to rely on promises made by their employers. Employers are free to cover some diseases but not others, regardless of whether the decision makes financial sense, so long as they cite cost-savings as the reason for the change."
The importance of this case is likely to encourage Congress and the Clinton administration to work on overhauling the nation's inadequate and expensive health care system. Lambda Legal Defense and other organizations must turn to the recently-enacted Americans with Disabilities Act as the sole remaining federal law that may prove effective in challenging disease-specific caps and keeping insurance coverage for those who need it.
were lurking in the alleys that night.
Judy Harrington, head of the "No on 2" campaign, said the early returns showed the anti-gay amendment going down in Oregon victory is sweet, brief defeat. The polls just a few days earlier, she said, had predicted the "No on 2" group had an eight-point lead.
"We knew we were in trouble by 8," said Harrington. "When one percent of the vote was in, we had 61 percent and were all excited," said Harrington. "Then we watched it slide all night, down to 46 percent.”
Some activists attribute the slide to what they call the "David Duke factor"--a reluctance to admit support for a candidate or person widely perceived as unpopular. But Lawrence Pacheo, volunteer coordinator for the No on 2 group, said the office got calls after the election from people who said they had misunderstood the language of the amendment.
"They were apologizing for their vote," Pacheo said. The misunderstanding, if it occurred, was apparently a product of the vague language and cumbersome reading of the ballot.
The three major Colorado cities which have ordinances prohibiting discrimination against gays voted overwhelmingly against Amendment 2. Denver and Aspen were 60 percent against it; Boulder went 70 percent against it. But overall, the state went 53 percent for Amendment 2.
On Wednesday morning, Colorado Gov. Roy Romer (D), the mayor of Denver, and Colorado's popular incumbent Democratic Rep. Pat Schroeder met with gay activists to strategize.
"The governor said he was in total opposition to Amendment 2 but that he was mandated to uphold the laws of the state," said Pacheo. "He reassured us he will be 100 percent behind us" in trying to undo the initiative's intent. Amendment 2, if enacted, would automatically repeal antidiscrimination laws and policies which protect gays--that includes Romer's executive order for state employees and ordinances in Aspen, Boulder, Denver and two other small towns.
The night after the election, an estimated 7,000 people turned out for a rally on the west steps of the Colorado state capitol, vowing to continue the fight against Coloradans for Family Values.
In Oregon, gay activists no sooner started celebrating than they heard the news: The Oregon Citizens Alliance, which got Mea sure 9 on the ballot but failed to get it passed, would now try the Colorado for Family Values' version.
The fight against Measure 9 garnered most of the publicity from mainstream media during this election. That's because it was considered far more radical than its counterpart in Colorado. Where Colorado's Amendment 2 sought to repeal anti-discrimination laws protecting gays and bi sexuals, Measure 9 did that and more: It declared homosexuality as abnormal and perverse. It mandated that children be taught that in the schools. And it prohibited gov ernment funds from "promoting” or “facilitating" homosexuality.
The gay community's "No on 9" campaign raised three times as much as their "No on 2" counterparts in Colorado, and they defeated the measure. The Oregon Secretary of State said that 56.7 percent of voters opposed the measure Tuesday.
Thirty minutes after the polls closed in Oregon, a pollster projected No on 9 the victor, and an estimated 1,500 gays and their supporters cheered the victory in a downtown Portland hall. No on 9 director Peggy Norman addressed the throng and, in a teasing fashion, said that OCA's claim that gays were seeking to push their "homosexual agenda." Then she revealed that agenda by unfurling an enormous banner which carried the words, "Equality: Nothing more, nothing less."
But when the TV broadcasters gave OCA Director Lon Mabon a chance to react to Measure 9's defeat, Mabon announced that his group would seek a new statewide initiative, one modeled after Colorado's successful Amendment 2.
Thousands of gays rallied in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square the night after the election, and though spirits were "good," said Pharr, "they were not high People know there's a long haul still ahead." On November 13, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional an earlier ballot measure that would have rescinded former Gov. Neil Goldscmidt's executive order banning antigay bias in state employ ment. Measure 8, passed by voters in 1988 had also been put on the ballot by the OCA
They were upbeat but on edge; already reports were cropping up that gay bashers were on the prowl, that two women were kicked out of their apartment in Boulder, that a gay man was fired in Denver. Demonstrators were urged to leave the rally in groups because of reports that gay bashers Reprinted with permission from the Washington Blade