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Big Business on the Attack
A referendum will appear on the November statewide ballot to repeal SB 2, "The Health Insurance Act of 2003," a law that would require some companies to provide health insurance to their workers or pay into a state fund that would provide coverage. Burton's groundbreaking expansion of employer-based health care, which would phase in employer-based coverage for over 860,000 to 1.1 million uninsured Californians (UCLA Center for Health Policy Research), was passed by legislators last year and signed into law by former Gov. Gray Davis in October. The ACLU of Southern California, as well as many health advocacy groups, supported this bill as a step toward increasing health care coverage for Californians.
SB 2, scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2006, will require employers with 200 or more employees to provide health insurance to workers and their dependents by 2006 or pay into a state fund that would provide such coverage. Employers with 50 to 199 employees will have to provide health insurance only to workers by 2007, and employers with fewer than 20 workers will be exempt from the law. Those with 20 to 49 employees will be exempt from the law unless the state provides tax credits to subsidize the cost of health benefits. Employers would "pay or play," i.e., have a choice of covering at least 80% of employees' health premiums or paying into a state fund.
No one can deny that California's health care system is broken. The number of Californians without health insurance hovers between 6 and 7 million (almost 1 in 5); 83% of uninsured Californians are, in actuality, members of working families. In addition, the system of hospitals, clinics, and trauma centers that we all rely on is in financial distress, thus threatening the health coverage of insured and uninsured people alike.
"Health care in California is in a state of crisis. The opposition to the Health Insurance Act is led by corporations that want to avoid providing health care to their employees," Art Pulaski, California Labor Federation chief, said in a statement to the Sacramento Bee this January.
"Californians Against Government-Run Healthcare," a coalition of businesses led by the California Chamber of Commerce, gathered more than 620,000 signatures for a 2004 ballot measure to overturn SB 2. However, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge in December ruled that the petitions used were invalid because they failed to say that small businesses would not have to provide health insurance unless state lawmakers first approved a tax credit. The coalition appealed the Superior Court decision to the 1st District Court of Appeals, which ruled Jan. 23 that the petitions were, in fact, valid and that a referendum to overturn SB 2 may appear on the November 2004 ballot.
While the legal status remains unclear at press time, SB 2 advocates are waging a fierce campaign to defend SB 2 and its future implementation.
Anthony Wright, Executive Director of Health Access, a statewide coalition of groups that advocate for health care reform said, "We believe that voters will whole-heartedly vote to protect the health care benefits they enjoy from their employers and expand it to more than a million other people."
He and consumer health groups are confident the November ballot issue will be a "close fight and high-stakes battle." Taken within the context of the economic and political environment, Wright says that upholding SB 2 would "send a huge signal not only to California, but to the nation that it is time for real health care reform."
A Field Poll released the day of the court ruling found that 65% of voters support SB 2, 27% oppose it and 8% are undecided. Overall, the survey found that less than 31% of voters were aware of the law, signifying that businesses face a big educational challenge to pass their referendum. After those surveyed were briefed on the arguments against SB 2, 53% were in favor of the law and 39% were opposed to it, indicating the November ballot issue will be highly contested. Other polls, however, have shown that support for SB 2 actually increases after voters understand what it does with support in one recent poll jumping by 6% once voters learn about the measure.
