Setting the Record Straight:Compulsory Healthcare in San Francisco

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will soon review a measure designed to make the provision of health insurance compulsory for all businesses with twenty employees or more. There has been some confusion and misinformation about the legislation. The following points are designed to set the record straight.

Employers that offer health benefits are exempt from the legislation.
FALSE. The law as proposed sets a specific fee that is the equivalent of $345 per employee per month. If a business is spending less on their employees’ health insurance than the city mandated amount, the employer must pay the difference. For example, if the fee is the equivalent of $345 per employee per month and a business with 50 employees pays $200 a month for their employees’ health care costs under this ordinance they would have to pay an extra $145 per employee. That would amount to an extra $7,250 a month or $87,000 a year. This is a 73% increase in costs to the employer.

Businesses with a Collective Bargaining Agreement are exempt.
FALSE. If a business with a collective bargaining agreement is spending less on their employees’ health insurance than the city mandated amount, the employer must make up the difference.

This is will help insure all San Francisco residents.
FALSE. Because the law only covers San Francisco employers and their workers in the city, San Francisco residents that work outside San Francisco will not be covered as a part of this ordinance.

San Francisco residents have supported this type of legislation in the past.
FALSE. This legislation is far from the type of health care proposals that San Francisco voters have supported recently. For example, past legislation mandated employers with 50 or more employees to pay 80% of the employees’ health care. This legislation calls for businesses and non-profits with 20 or more employees to fund 100% of their employee’s health care costs.

Small business owners provided their own input before the legislation was released.
FALSE. This legislation was developed with little input from small businesses. Small business owners are disappointed that many key stakeholders have not been included in the discussion. San Francisco has always demanded inclusiveness in its legislative decision making. Unfortunately, this has not been the case during the drafting of this significant legislation.

Non-profit organizations are exempt from this legislation.
FALSE. All employers with 20 employees or more who work 80 hours a month or more and earn less than $72,450 a year are covered in this legislation, including non-profits.

This will impact very few San Francisco businesses.
FALSE. This will impact ALL San Francisco businesses with 20 or more employees. This includes local restaurants, hotels, and shops, even those that are already providing health insurance to their employees. Even if the business is providing health coverage to their employees at a lower cost, they would be required to meet the stringent requirements of the ordinance.

This will help insure children in San Francisco.
FALSE. The ordinance only covers the employee, not their dependents. Since this legislation currently provides that health care expenditures be made only for employees, children would not receive health insurance under this plan.

San Francisco businesses are against providing health care.
FALSE. San Francisco businesses have been on the cutting edge of providing the best health care benefits to their employees. This includes taking the lead on providing domestic partner benefits. San Francisco businesses are not opposed to health care, but are concerned with a government mandated restructuring which does not contain elements of any cost containment or quality control. Requiring employers to cover 100% of health care costs with no safeguards is the wrong approach.