{"id":319,"date":"2008-04-17T17:05:24","date_gmt":"2008-04-18T01:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/17\/appeals-court-mulls-san-francisco-health-plan\/"},"modified":"2008-04-17T17:05:24","modified_gmt":"2008-04-18T01:05:24","slug":"appeals-court-mulls-san-francisco-health-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/319\/appeals-court-mulls-san-francisco-health-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court mulls San Francisco health plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Julia Cheever<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 17, 2008<\/p>\n

A federal appeals court is now pondering the legality of a San Francisco measure requiring employers to help pay for the city’s pioneering universal health care program.<\/p>\n

Three judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on the case in Pasadena today and will issue a written ruling at a later date.<\/p>\n

The panel has no deadline, but the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a local business group that challenged the measure, said it is hoping for a decision within several weeks.<\/p>\n

Ken Jacobs, a labor expert at the University of California, Berkeley, who advised San Francisco on the development of the plan, said, “States around the country are watching this case very closely.”<\/p>\n

Jacobs said, “The lack of clarity in the law has been a major impediment to health care reform. If San Francisco succeeds, it will open the door to reform efforts that could get millions of more people access to health care.”<\/p>\n

The city’s program, known as Healthy San Francisco, is aimed at providing health care for the 73,000 uninsured residents who aren’t covered by other government programs.<\/p>\n

Part of the funding — about $12 million of an estimated $200 million per year — is to come from companies with 20 or more workers.<\/p>\n

Employers must either set up a health plan or contribute a set amount per worker to the city program.<\/p>\n

The restaurant association, supported by the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, contends the employer spending mandate violates a federal law that puts regulation of worker benefit plans in the hands of federal rather than local government.<\/p>\n

The Labor Department argued in papers filed with the court that allowing local employer requirements could open businesses up to “a potentially bewildering and conflicting array of mandates.”<\/p>\n

Several union groups claim the city measure doesn’t conflict with the U.S. law because employers have a choice of either establishing a federally regulated health plan or paying a fee to the city.<\/p>\n

The appeal heard today is technically the city’s appeal of a ruling in which a U.S. district judge in December overturned the employer spending requirement.<\/p>\n

But because the appeals court issued an emergency stay of the lower court ruling on Jan. 9, the mandate has remained on the books.<\/p>\n

Companies with 50 or more workers have until April 30 to make their first payment, however, and smaller firms have until June 30.<\/p>\n

The three-judge panel that issued the stay, made up of Circuit Judges William Fletcher, Stephen Reinhardt and Alfred Goodwin, is the same panel that heard arguments on the full appeal today.<\/p>\n

The judges wrote in the January stay ruling that the city had “a strong likelihood” of winning the full appeal. Their eventual ruling can be appealed to an expanded 11-judge panel of the appeals court or to the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Health Department spokeswoman Frances Cult said 17,798 city residents have enrolled in the health access program thus far.<\/p>\n

The measure requires businesses with 20 to 99 workers to spend $1.17 per hour per employee and those with staffs of more than 100 to spend $1.76 per hour on health care plans or payments to the city.<\/p>\n

Other funding for the program is provided by city, state and local governments and a sliding fee for patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Julia Cheever April 17, 2008 A federal appeals court is now pondering the legality of a San Francisco measure requiring employers to help pay for the city’s pioneering universal health care program. 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