Search the News Archive

San Francisco Asks Court to Reject Case Challenging Health Care Effort

Excerpt: On Monday, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss the Golden Gate Restaurant Association's challenge of a Healthy San Francisco provision requiring employers to contribute to workers' health care coverage, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/25).

Step Onto the Cable Car and Deposit $13,487 for San Francisco's Retiree Health Care

"To cover the gap [in pension funding for San Francisco city workers], each household in the city would have to fork over $1,677.... But when it comes to retiree health care costs, it's another story. San Francisco has saved less than one percent of its $4.4 billion tab -- and each household would have to pay $13,487 to make up the difference."

'Healthy San Francisco' Law Clears Supreme Court Hurdle

Excerpt: After four years, San Francisco on Monday won its legal battle to provide health care for all its residents when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a business group's challenge to the Healthy San Francisco program.

Obama Administration Sides with City in San Francisco Health Coverage Law Lawsuit

Excerpt: San Francisco Chronicle: 'The Obama administration took San Francisco's side Friday in a legal dispute over the city's groundbreaking health coverage law, urging the Supreme Court to reject an appeal by restaurant owners who objected to paying part of the cost. In a long-awaited filing, government lawyers said passage of national health insurance legislation 'has dramatically changed the landscape' and reduced the likelihood that cities and states would adopt laws like San Francisco's.

San Francisco Judge Rules California Compensation Insurance Fund Furloughs Illegal

Excerpt: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger illegally furloughed 7,400 employees of the State Compensation Insurance Fund this year, a San Francisco judge ruled Tuesday in a case that may help workers in other state agencies challenge their unpaid leaves. Superior Court Judge Charlotte Woolard affirmed a tentative ruling she had issued Monday that the governor had no authority to cut the staff of the insurance fund. The fund, based in San Francisco, sells workers' compensation insurance to employers and uses the proceeds to run its operations, with no support from the state treasury. Woolard's tentative decision came in a suit by the Service Employees International Union, which represents the fund's nearly 6,300 clerical workers, claims adjusters and support staff. She granted the fund's request Tuesday to extend the ruling to another 1,100 employees not represented by the union. Schwarzenegger will appeal the ruling, said spokesman Mike Naple.

Supreme Court Asked to Decide Legality of San Francisco Health Care Rule

Excerpt: The Golden Gate Restaurant Association filed a petition v on Monday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to make the final decision on whether San Francisco's mandate that employers pay for health care coverage is legal. The city's first-of-its-kind universal health care program, dubbed Healthy San Francisco, began two years ago and requires that employers with at least 20 employees provide health insurance, set up health care spending accounts or pay into the city's fund.

San Francisco Initiative Aimed at Universal Care Signs Up Its First Applicants

Excerpt: Healthy San Francisco is estimated to cost $200 million a year and will be paid for through a mix of public funds, participants' premiums and co-payments and employer contributions. The city is mandating that employers who don't currently offer health insurance to their employees contribute to Healthy San Francisco starting Jan. 1.

San Francisco Loses State Supreme Court Ruling on Pension Cuts

"The state Supreme Court ... allowed thousands of San Francisco city employees and retirees to regain increases in future pensions that voters had sought to eliminate. A lower-court ruling had restored the increases for employees who retired after November 1996 and for future retirees, and the [California] Supreme Court] denied the city's appeal. The court also denied an appeal by a lawyer for the workers, who had wanted a ruling that eliminated the cutbacks for earlier retirees."

Voters to Consider San Francisco Retiree Health Care Shortfall Solution

"San Francisco voters will be asked next month to approve a measure that seeks to eliminate a projected $4.4 billion shortfall in the city's retiree health care fund over the coming decades, all without increasing employee or taxpayer contributions.... Just one city union opposes the measure, which would tackle the deficit by prohibiting the city from raiding a health care fund established in 2011. Prop. A effectively changes retiree health care from a pay-as-you-go model to a fully funded account by 2045."

More Bad News for San Francisco's City Pension Fund

"A preliminary report of how the city's pension fund performed in the fiscal year 2011-12, which ended June 30, shows it earned a meager 1.6 percent -- far below the assumed rate of return of 7.5 percent. For a fund currently worth $15.3 billion, that's a big difference. 'This is even worse than anyone predicted,' said Public Defender Jeff Adachi, who offered a competing, failed pension reform measure that would have raised more money through employee contributions. 'If this was a movie, it would be a disaster movie called "Pension Armageddon".'"