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Court allows health mandates during appeal

January 11, 2008
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 9 ruled the city of San Francisco may require employers to make healthcare expenditures while the city appeals a court decision last month against the mandate. The requirement that businesses spend on healthcare is part of a plan, Healthy San Francisco, to provide health coverage to all city residents. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association opposes the spending requirements saying they are overly burdensome on business and suggested a quarter-cent sales tax instead.

The rule would have required companies with 20 to 99 employees to make healthcare expenditures of $1.17 per hour for all employees who have worked at the company for more than 90 days and work at least 10 hours a week. Firms with more than 100 employees would have had to spend $1.76 per hour. Those expenditures could have gone to health savings accounts, direct reimbursement to employees for healthcare services, health insurance for workers, or payments to the city to help provide health coverage.