I was told yesterday by an insurance agent that Democrats in California

[Bandit]

wanted to make all businesses provide health care for all employees and that was the main reason Ah-nold was elected because he said he would put a stop to it immediately. Is there any truth to that? If the Democrats really tried to make that a law I would agree they need to be stopped. Health Care should be a Government issue not small business. It would put me out of business if I had to, by law, provide health insuirance for all employees. I would love to be able to do just that but reality says different. I just can not afford it.

[Occulus]

1. "I just can not afford it."

Three little letters hold the lion's share of the blame for that... H-M-O.

[theivoryqueen]

2. I am not in CA, but never heard of any initiative or proposition

to that effect.

[Demobrat]

3. I am in California

and I never heard of it either.

[wryter2000]

4. Oaktown checking in

I never heard of that, either.

[bearfartinthewoods]

15. jeeze...i'm in PA and i heard about it...it's a LAW fer cryin' out loud

it was a big deal during the campaign. one of the things the pubbies campaigned about as creating an unfriendly business atmosphere.

[mrgorth]

5. You never heard of it?

I thought that Davis signed it. MAkes any business with more than 200 employees provide health benis. One of the dumbest ideas I ever heard. Full of loopholes.

[Mentalist]

18. 200 employees

200 employees or more for the first year. It goes down after that. To 50 employees I believe. But having trouble finding confirmation on that number at this time.

[Zorra]

6. No, there is no truth to that.

the guy was just a stupid freeper blowing smoke.

[bearfartinthewoods]

16. wow......does anyone even check things out before they issue

a standard knee jerk denial? jeeze....i can understand saying 'i never heard of it' but to be so forceful and so wrong at the same time?

[Mentalist]

21. The one blowing smoke

is not the "Freeper".

[AP]

7. I've forgotten the details...

...but the dems were going to do something to make businesses cover more people, but there were reasonable exemptions for small businesses.

Your insurance friend is just (consciously or unconsciously) repeating spin which is meant to drive a wedge in a natural democratic constituency.

No small businessperson should be voting for Republicans. They exist to protect large businesses from effective competition from small businesses.

Lies like this one make small businesspeople think their interests align with big business when they, in fact, do not.

And you should know that if Democrats got everything they wanted, small businesses would be wealthier and you COULD afford health care for your employees.

[Book Lover]

8. This sounds like a salesman's lie

This Peninsula resident hasn't heard of anything like this. Besides, this issue never came up during the campaign...

[Yupster]

9. I'm in same boat as you bandit

It would kill me too.

Carol Mosley-Braun's proposed universal healthcare plan is to uncouple health insurance from employment. It's the right way to go. No reason the two things should have anything to do with each other.

Kucinich's plan is to make every business pay a new 7.7 % tax for health insurance. That would just about do my business in. I'm assuming that Kucinich never tried to start a small business himself.

[ET Awful]

10. Are you kidding?

That would be a Republicans wet dream. They could reduce government funding for health care, and line the pockets of insurance companies at the same time, at teh expense of the individual.

Oh wait, they just did that.

[JHB]

11. If you can, ask him EXACTLY where he heard it...

...sounds like another Rethug Scare-em story, but one never knows.

Incidentally, this helps make one of the arguments for a single-payer system: The costs are spread out as part of general revenue, not put on the backs of businesses, especially small ones who have shllower pockets and less negotiating leverage than megacorps do.

[Bandit]

12. The reason I started this thread is because I never heard of this

I live in Alaska so it would have no effect on me anyway but I was shocked to hear such a thing and had no comeback for it. I just didn't know of any such proposal. I would oppose such a thing if it were true.

[Mentalist]

13. It is true

Gov. Davis Signs Health Insurance Bill
Law Takes Effect In 2006
California is now the largest state to require employers to offer health insurance to their workers.

Gov. Gray Davis signed the new law in Los Angeles over the weekend calling it a model for the rest of the country.

Under the new law, the state will finance the insurance through a new purchasing pool. Employers will pay 80 percent; employees will pick up the remaining 20 percent.

The new law takes effect in 2006 and for the first year, it only affects businesses with more than 200 employees.

Under the new law, 1.1 million workers and their families will be covered.

http://www.nbc11.com/politics/2535111/detail.html

This is just one quick story I found. There are many if anyone wants to take the time to search.

[Book Lover]

14. Oh, I am thick

Now that you have posted the link, I remember the story...

[Mentalist]

17. Trouble finding

As stated in the story, the first year the law is in effect, only companies with 200 or more employees are bound by it. My memory is telling me that after that, the number drops to 50 employees but I am having trouble locating that info.

Clearly the number does change after year one. But to what?

And if it is 50, and you have 49 employees, it seems to me that such a requirement may be a large disincentive to expanding as the additional cost will not be covered by the companies expansion.

[Bandit]

19. This sound very similar to what the Clintons offered up in 1993

Have mixed emotions about this. Why should employers be responsible for anyone's health insurance? I don't employee two hundred people so I guess I wouldn't be effected even if I lived in California. America does a very poor job of taking care of it's citizens. That is the only thing government is really for and it isn't happening here. Maintaining the health and welfare of it's people is the sole responsibility of the government. IMHO

[Mentalist]

20. Ya, never mind

Maintaining the health and welfare of it's people is the sole responsibility of the government. IMHO

Ya, never mind their responsibility to protect and defend the country from its enemies. Nor its responsibility for the enforcement of laws. Protection of our rights and freedoms, including personal and property.

The list can go on.

[Bandit]

22. How are those things different than maintaining the health and welfare

All those things you mentioned do just that.

[0rganism]

23. Seems to me, employers would have an interest in employee health

Even if you consider your employees eminently replaceable, there is that little bit of turn-around time in training a new hire that costs *something*.

[Yupster]

24. Seems like employees would have an interest in employers' health

Tougher to find a new job than an employer finding a new worker.

Yet I still don't think it should be the workers' responsibility to buy their boss health insurance any more than I think it's the boss's responsibility to buy the workers health insurance.

We're all in this together. I think we should all be responsible and chip in and that means it should be a government responsibility.

[FredScuttle]

27. Law was passed....

but it will most assuredly be challenged in the courts, where it may not survive.

[CreekDog]

25. Yes, the Dems passed a Heathcare Bill...

It mandates coverage for everybody with hefty subsidies and mandates for big business, expanding to other in the out years. There was a story on it about a month ago in the SF Chronicle. The Democrats were afraid of losing the statehouse and not being able to pass a healthcare bill that was any good with a Republican at the helm.

[arewethereyet]

26. I read it but I can't recall where

not sure it had much support but it was being floated.

[David Zephyr]

28. My Business.

We provide all of our employees health care with no deductions from their paychecks whatsoever. I am very proud of the fact that we do provide this to our employees, but I understand it is not feasible for every small business.

I agree with you Bandit. Universal healthcare should be provided through the government and paid for through taxes, not by mandating it through businesses. Some small companies simply can not survive if they did what we do for our employees. It's not that they are selfish, but that they will go under.

That's why a government run healthcare program, as proposed by Kucinich and Mosely-Braun would be so beneficial to entrepeneurs and start-ups as well as to the populace as a whole.

Take the profit out of healthcare like the rest of the civilized world did over a half a century ago.

[rman]

29. oh sure, Privatization of Health Care is a Dem idea....

And Repubs are trying to keep it with the Government. Same with basic insurence, education, police, prison system, etc.

Since when?