As businesses shift an ever greater share of the cost of health care to their employees, voters are being asked to do something about it.
Proposition 72, the Health Insurance Act, on the November ballot would cap out-of-pocket expenses that employees pay for health care and require large- and medium-sized companies to pay for affordable health insurance for their employees.
CTA is recommending that members work for passage of the initiative, which would ensure that "health insurance stays within reach of the middle class," says CTA Board member Lynette Henley, chair of CTA's campaign workgroup. Eighty percent of Californians without health insurance are in working families. Many of the uninsured are school-aged children.
The amount California families pay for health care premiums has increased 70 percent in the last three years. Last year, employee premiums increased at twice the rate of business premiums.
Under Prop. 72, companies would be required to pay at least 80 percent of the cost of employees' premiums for health insurance including preventive care, major medical care and prescription drugs. Small businesses with fewer than 20 employees would be exempt from the law, as would companies with 20 to 49 employees unless a state tax credit is created to offset their costs. The initiative would not interfere with local collective bargaining agreements.
California taxpayers pay $4.6 billion annually to cover emergency room and health care bills for the uninsured. Prop. 72 would protect taxpayers by providing health care coverage to an additional 1.1 million workers and their children, taking them out of emergency rooms and placing them in the care of their own doctors.
Approximately 30 percent of businesses say they plan to cut health benefits for employees in the near future. "Without Prop. 72, they could get away with it," says Henley.
Prop. 72 is supported by nurses, doctors, seniors, health care organizations, unions and consumer groups, including the California Medical Association, United Nurses Association and Consumers Union. For more information, visit the campaign website [www.yesonprop72.com/].