Frommer Urges Voters To Reject Ballot Initiative To Repeal Employer-Mandated Insurance Law
Assembly member Dario Frommer (D-Glendale) on Friday urged voters to reject an initiative on the Nov. 2 statewide ballot to repeal a measure (SB 2) that will require some employers to provide health insurance to workers or pay into a state fund to provide such coverage, the Los Angeles Daily News reports (Boghossian, Los Angeles Daily News, 4/24). Scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2006, SB 2 will require employers with 200 or more employees to provide health insurance to workers and their dependents by 2006 or pay into a state fund that would provide such coverage. Employers with 50 to 199 employees will have to provide health insurance only to workers by 2007. The law will exempt employers with fewer than 20 employees. The law also will exempt employers with 20 to 49 employees unless the state provides them with tax credits to subsidize the cost of health insurance for employees (California Healthline, 4/19). Speaking at a meeting at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, Frommer said, "Twenty-five percent of my constituents have no health insurance, ... and we're spending $6 billion a year on people in California who have no health insurance." Frommer also said the state needs to provide more funding to nurse education programs to help ease a statewide nursing shortage (Los Angeles Daily News, 4/24).
Additional information on SB 2 is available online.