392
Thomas, J., dissenting
ment of the District Court based solely on Dr. Dellon's judgment that the surgery was "medically necessary."
II
Section 514(a)'s broad language provides that ERISA "shall supersede any and all State laws insofar as they . . . relate to any employee benefit plan," except as provided in § 514(b). 29 U. S. C. § 1144(a). This language demonstrates "Congress's intent to establish the regulation of employee welfare benefit plans 'as exclusively a federal concern.' " New York State Conference of Blue Cross & Blue Shield Plans v. Travelers Ins. Co., 514 U. S. 645, 656 (1995) (quoting Alessi v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc., 451 U. S. 504, 523 (1981)). It was intended to "ensure that plans and plan sponsors would be subject to a uniform body of benefits law" so as to "minimize the administrative and financial burden of complying with conflicting directives among States or between States and the Federal Government" and to prevent "the potential for conflict in substantive law . . . requiring the tailoring of plans and employer conduct to the peculiarities of the law of each jurisdiction." Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. McClendon, 498 U. S. 133, 142 (1990). See also Egelhoff v. Egelhoff, 532 U. S. 141, 148 (2001).
To be sure, this broad goal of uniformity is in some tension with the so-called "saving clause," which provides that ERISA does not "exempt or relieve any person from any law of any State which regulates insurance, banking, or securities." § 514(b)(2)(A) of ERISA, 29 U. S. C. § 1144(b)(2)(A). As the Court has suggested on more than one occasion, the pre-emption and saving clauses are almost antithetically broad and " 'are not a model of legislative drafting.' " John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Harris Trust and Sav. Bank, 510 U. S. 86, 99 (1993) (quoting Pilot Life, 481 U. S., at 46). But because there is "no solid basis for believing that Congress, when it designed ERISA, intended fundamentally to alter traditional pre-emption analysis," the Court has con-
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