The Maryland law requiring employers with more than 10,000 employees to spend a minimum of 8% of payroll for employee health insurance has been struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, reports The Baltimore Sun. The three-judge panel sided with a previous lower court ruling, and stated that the law violates the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The state attorney general now must decide whether to ask the entire Fourth Circuit Court to review the decision or accept the panel’s decision that the law is illegal. State legislators agree that they must propose new solutions to cover the uninsured, whether or not they include employer mandates. “We’ve got to decide what the package is going to be, how much it’s going to cost, and how to get to it,” state Sen. Thomas Middleton told the Sun. “I wouldn’t say that we’ve ruled out employer mandates.”
