Supervisor Open to Health Access Plan Modifications

San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano last week said he would consider revisions to an ordinance he sponsored to create the Health Access Program for San Francisco residents, the San Francisco Business Times reports. The ordinance is designed to provide access to health care services to more than 80,000 uninsured San Francisco residents.

The Golden Gate Restaurant Association on Nov. 8 sued the city over the plan, which is scheduled to take effect in July 2007.

In the suit, the restaurant association says that the plan is pre-empted by federal law under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which restricts local governments from providing employee benefits (Young, San Francisco Business Times, 11/24).

The association is seeking an injunction to block the employer contribution requirement "without disturbing all other lawful parts of the ordinance," the lawsuit states (California Healthline, 11/14).

Mandatory payments from San Francisco employers will account for $30 million of the program's annual funding (San Francisco Business Times, 11/24).