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SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - Amid a pending court case and confusion about the law, HealthySF is set for its last rollout to require businesses to pay for employees’ health care or contribute to The City’s universal health care program.
On Tuesday, businesses with 20 to 49 employees must begin calculating the hours employees work because the employer spending mandate that helps fund San Francisco’s universal health care program requires businesses to either pay The City an amount based on the hours an employee worked or purchase a health care plan.
Businesses with 20 to 49 employees must either make a first payment or have a health care plan by June 30, said Joannie Chang, a contract compliance officer with the City Office of Labor Standards. Businesses with 50 or more employees began calculating employee work hours Jan. 9, and they must have a plan or contribute by April 30, Chang said.
Adopted in 2006, the ordinance provides sliding-scale health care for The City’s estimated 73,000 uninsured. The $200 million HealthySF program, which was expanded at the beginning of this year to include uninsured San Franciscans earning up to 300 percent more than the federal poverty line, receives local, state and federal dollars in addition to the employer spending requirement. City officials have said they expect to receive $28 million annually from businesses not providing health care to employees.
The Golden Gate Restaurant Association filed a lawsuit against The City challenging the legality of the spending mandate, and the two sides will see each other in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for oral arguments April 17.
Restaurants have already begun either swallowing the costs, increasing food prices or placing a surcharge on customers’ bills to pay for additional expenses.
Kevin Westlye, executive director of the GGRA, said there is still quite a bit of confusion and indecision on the part of businesses about what to do.
“There’s still eight, 10, 12 calls a day into our office” asking how to comply, Westlye said.
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Comments from Examiner Readers
11:43 AM MST on Wed., Jul. 16, 2008 re: "Party planned on Embarcadero"
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Examiner Reader said:
""Several members of the board, left, right and center, think this has been poorly thought out,” Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin told The Examiner. “Fisherman’s Wharf is the goose that lays the golden egg for San Francisco. We don’t want to commit economic suicide.”" What an absolute crock... completely political on the part of this Supervisor and any other of them. Neighborhood groups continually contact their District Superviors about impact of street fairs and large events in and close to residential areas for years and we are told we are just "killing" the spirit of fun in The City. Well now is a chance to have fun when it doesn't impact neighborhoods. Just the same old political BS from Supervisors who continually enjoy conflict.
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Examiner Reader said:
Sometimes Mayor Newsom can be so clueless. Real life can be considerably different outside "Newsom-land" in the Mayor's head.
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Examiner Reader said:
In March, Izzy's got a 42 and spent quite a bit of money to follow code and improve. 3 months later they recieve negative press while pending inspection. Latest score--94. How about positive press instead of slamming local hard working firms.
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Examiner Reader said:
My 9-year-old son had open heart surgery and was on the heart/lung machine during his surgery,after which he experienced anxiety and depression and had thoughts of suicide. He took his own life at 17 years old. I wish I had known this risk of the heart surgery and specifically the risk of being on the heart/lung machine.
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Examiner Reader Hater said:
Did you even read the article?
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Examiner Reader said:
I think its incredibly important to know exactly what goes into our food so we can make an educated guess in deciding what goes into our bodies is the best thing for us in order to take better care of ourselves. Had we been informed of the risk of adding sugary and fattening fried food into our diet, we would have never allow these filthy thing to touch our lips. Fried and sugary food should have been expensive, and NOT healthy, nutritious food for our consumption. Also once these bad, nutritionally poor food is consumed, it is unusually addictive and bad habits can be hard to break.
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