I don't recall you posting this, Bill. Been pretty busy, so apologies if I missed it...
If this passes, which I'm sure it will, its going to just add to the sucking sound of jobs fleeing California. MANDATED health insurance costs on business. Wow.
bayarea.com
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Posted on Fri, Sep. 12, 2003
Health care bill nears final vote in Assembly
By Julie Sevrens Lyons
Mercury News
SACRAMENTO - The largest effort in the nation to give health insurance to more workers was still being contemplated late Friday by the California Legislature, which was grappling with whether health benefits for employees should outweigh the potential financial drawbacks for some small businesses.
Known as the Health Insurance Act of 2003, SB 2 was soundly approved by the state Senate on Friday by a 25-14 vote. But it faced a decidedly more difficult battle in the Assembly, which had yet to take up the matter by early evening.
If the Assembly votes it down, the bill meant to expand Californians' access to health insurance will die until the beginning of the next session in January, if not forever. If it passes, it still awaits approval by Gov. Gray Davis, who has not publicly taken a position on the matter.
But if signed into law, it is expected to bring health care coverage to an estimated 1 million uninsured California residents, and is being heralded by some proponents as one of the most important health care measures in the country.
``It is a very historic bill,'' said Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, who has spearheaded the efforts to make the legislation become law. ``It puts California in the forefront of providing health care for the rest of the state.''
Indeed, if approved, California will be taking a virtually unprecedented step nationwide in requiring large employers to buy health insurance for workers.
Under the bill, employers with more than 200 workers would have to provide insurance for employees and their families by 2006. Businesses with 50 to 199 workers would have to provide insurance for employees by 2007 -- or pay into a state fund that would provide it. Companies with 20 to 49 workers would be subject to SB 2 only if given a tax credit to subsidize costs. And those with only a handful of workers would be exempt.
``This establishes the principle that everyone who works should have health insurance,'' said Beth Capell, a lobbyist for Health Access, a health care consumer coalition. But, she concedes, ``there are gaps in it.''
For supporters of patients' rights, the gaps are startling. The bill would still leave an estimated 5 million -- or more -- Californians without health insurance. And it does not begin to address the problem of undocumented workers, who often have no insurance and turn to the public-health system for emergency care.
``This is in many senses,'' Capell said, ``a modest step'' that California is on the verge of taking.
But even in its limits, the bill has not sat well with pro-business groups, who have feared the requirements would pose economic hardships for employers, driving some companies out of state and causing others to shrink their workforce to skirt the regulations.
While it is believed that only 5 percent of the state's employers would be affected by the bill -- many large employers already provide workers with health insurance -- opponents worry the end result could be more Californians looking for work.
``Basically it amounts to a tax on hiring,'' said Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Nevada City, who voted against the measure. ``I think it's going to stunt job growth. It just makes California businesses less competitive.''
Among the bill's greatest detractors have been chambers of commerce and individual businesses, who say it places the responsibility of paying for health insurance solely on companies, when patients themselves should be carrying much of that burden.
``This legislation, while well intentioned, is a bad idea,'' said Richard Costigan III, a lobbyist for the California Chamber of Commerce. ``It's one of our top two job killers. Companies will sue.'' |
