Although California lawmakers were unable to pass a universal health insurance law during 2006, new proposals are now on the table. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senator Don Perata have unveiled measures that would require businesses to provide health benefits to employees or pay into a state insurance pool that would provide health coverage.
Join us this fall in San Francisco for the California Employment Law Update conference, a 3-day event that will teach you everything you need to know about new laws and regulations, and your compliance obligations, for the year ahead—it’s one-stop shopping at its best.
And Governor Schwarzenegger, having declared 2007 to be “the year of health care,” last week introduced his own universal health care proposal, to be paid for by employers, insurers, health care providers, government, and individuals. In particular, the governor’s plan would require employers with 10 or more employees to provide health insurance benefits or pay a four percent payroll tax to help fund benefits for uninsured individuals. The proposal would also redirect government money that currently is spent on subsidized care for uninsured patients to the fund, require hospitals and doctors to pay a “coverage dividend” into the fund, and limit insurer’s profits.
You can read the governor’s proposal online.