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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Healthy San Francisco Ready to Raise Taxes Again

I've written a lot about San Francisco's Healthy Access Plan, the employer "pay or play" mandate that hikes taxes on small businesses to fund San Francisco's public-health bureaucracy. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which has been leading the legal fight for relief from this excessive tax, has just suffered another setback. An 11-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal has refused to overturn a ruling that the San Francisco health-tax was legitimate.


It's perfect timing for the money-hungry bosses at City Hall: On February 10, the mandate expanded to cover employees earning up to $106,000 annually, per household. But the health-tax barely begins to cover the costs of this program: It's only raised $35 million since January 2008, while it costs $170 million annually - over $5,000 per enrollee. Despite this cost, SF HAP has failed to attract any significant participation by providers: 55% of beneficiaries have "medical homes" directly at the Department of Public Health and 43% are enrolled with members of the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium.


Sorry, San Francisco: A tax hike to expand the public-health buraucracy is not universal access to health care.

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