Hemenway & Barnes Files Amicus Brief with SJC Arguing Relatedness Requirement of Art. 48

Hemenway & Barnes attorneys M. Patrick Moore Jr., Jennifer Grace Miller, and Ryan P. McManus filed an amicus brief on behalf of America’s Health Insurance Plans, Inc. (AHIP) and American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) in support of the Plaintiffs-Appellants in the case of Lory-San Clark & others vs. Attorney General & others. The brief urges the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) to find that the Attorney General erred in certifying a ballot question affecting dental insurance for the November 2022 election.

The ballot question certified by the Attorney General seeks to establish and implement a medical loss ratio for dental insurance providers and to impose an unwieldy and largely redundant financial transparency scheme on all insurance providers that offer dental coverage across any of their many lines of business. Hemenway & Barnes’s brief argues that the ballot question’s disparate sections are not sufficiently related to satisfy Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution. It provides the SJC with important legislative and regulatory background on how proponents came to “hitch” the distinct medical loss ratio and financial transparency policies together.

The brief represents a facet of our firm’s appellate litigation practice: making sure our state’s highest courts are aware of the broader impact of the cases before them by representing parties who would be affected by those broader consequences. For more information, please contact Jennifer Grace Miller, or Ryan McManus.