Holding the Line on Health Care!

California's Health Care Revolution Under Attack

California's landmark new health care law, SB2, designed to dramatically boost the number of insured workers in the state, is under attack by big business.

Signed into law last October by former Gov. Gray Davis, the new law requires large employers in the state to provide basic health insurance to their employees or pay a healthcare tax towards a state-subsidized plan beginning in 2006. But only if it can survive a November referendum to repeal it.

A coalition of large employers in the retail and fast-food industries, including Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Macy's and the California Restaurant Association are hard at work trying to block the new law. They succeeded in placing it on the November 2004 ballot and are planning to spend as much as $15 million in an attempt to convince people to vote against it.

These opponents claim that the benefits will put companies out of business causing workers to lose not only their health care, but their jobs as well.

The California Labor Federation has vowed to launch a major campaign to defeat the ballot measure, saying a defeat would set a precedent and give businesses in California and across the nation the confidence to continue attacking and repealing health care for working families.

With profits in the restaurant sector up 40 percent this year, with more healthy growth projected, union members are saying employers need to take more responsibility for healthcare for their employees rather than sticking taxpayers with the tab.

Under SB2, companies with 200 or more workers are required to offer health benefits to employees and their dependents beginning in 2006. The following year, companies with 50 workers or more are to come online and offer health benefits to their employees. Alternatively, employers can pay a fee to the state to provide for state-subsidized health care. More than a million Californians are expected to gain health care coverage under SB2.

To help hold the line on health care, union members will be campaigning to support SB2 this November. For more information on what you can do, click on:

http://www.calaborfed.org/issues_politics/healthcare/SB2_Main.html

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