Measure to Kill Law Nears Ballot

Opponents of a new law that would require California businesses to provide medical coverage to about 1 million uninsured workers began submitting signatures to county registrars Monday in an effort to overturn the measure in a March referendum.

A business coalition calling itself Californians Against Government Run Healthcare said it has gathered more than 620,000 signatures to overturn SB 2, written by Senate President Pro Tem John L. Burton (D-San Francisco) and signed by former Gov. Gray Davis two days before the Oct. 7 recall election. Opponents need 373,816 valid signatures of registered voters to put the issue to a statewide vote.

“I think we have enough signatures to qualify for the March ballot,” said Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce and co-chair of the business coalition behind the petition drive. “[SB 2] is extremely hurtful to business. It’s very costly.”

Labor leaders and other SB 2 supporters said they would fight the attempt to roll back the historic legislation, which the California Medical Assn. hailed as an important step to address the costly problem posed by the estimated 6 million Californians who lack medical coverage and rely on taxpayer-funded emergency care.

“It’s an attempt to undo an important law that protects working families who will get health care from their employers,” said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, which made passage of SB 2 its paramount goal in this year’s legislative session.

Burton said the issue could increase Democratic turnout in March. The ballot will feature the Democratic presidential primary and could include proposals by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to cap state spending and borrow up to $15 billion to address California’s fiscal difficulties.

“From the standpoint of Democrats, it will probably be beneficial to us because health insurance is one of the biggest issues in the country,” said Burton.

The labor federation said it is considering a legal challenge targeting the wording of the petition, which states that the law “creates [a] mandatory employee health care benefits program for employers with 20 or more employees.” Supporters say this misrepresents the fact that businesses with 20 to 49 employees will be exempt from the program until the state can afford to give them a tax credit to relieve at least some of their higher costs.

Under the law, businesses with 200 or more employees must provide health coverage for workers and their families beginning in 2006 or pay into a state fund to insure the employees. In 2007, the program will be expanded to companies with 50 to 199 employees, but coverage will apply only to the workers.

In each case, the employer will pay at least 80% of the cost and the employee will pay the remaining 20%.

“The petition should have said 50 or more employees,” said Nathan Ballard, spokesman for the labor federation. “We have asked our lawyers to explore legal action, but that’s not going to stop us from putting together our campaign to stop this thing.”

Zaremberg said the threat of a legal challenge was simply a delaying tactic by supporters of the law.

“Anything they can do to delay things they’re going to try to do,” he said.

Supporters of SB 2 also accused signature gatherers employed by the business groups of misrepresenting the purpose of their petitions. Petition circulators told people their signatures would expand health coverage or would prevent jobs from going to Mexico, according to witnesses and supporters of the new law.

“We’ve heard from enough different people in enough different areas that either it was a systematic attempt to mislead people to sign this or the signature gatherers figured out that they couldn’t get the signatures any other way,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a health-care consumer advocacy group.