Some San Francisco Restaurants Increase Prices To Help Pay For Health Care Access Program

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 19 Mar 2008 - 6:00 PST

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Some restaurants in San Francisco are adding a surcharge to customers' bills, increasing food prices or charging a flat fee to help pay the cost of workers' health insurance under the city's Healthy San Francisco ordinance, the Los Angeles Times reports (Lifsher, Los Angeles Times, 3/17). The program is intended to ensure access to health care services for San Francisco's 82,000 uninsured residents at local clinics and the city's public hospital.

Under the program, which was launched on Jan. 9, private employers with at least 20 workers and not-for-profit groups with at least 50 workers must provide health care benefits at a cost that meets minimum spending levels or help cover the cost of the program. Other funding comes from tax revenue and member premiums. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that the program violates a federal law that prohibits state and local governments from regulating employee benefits (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/22).

The Times reports that a "big city jumping into universal health care is unprecedented," and the Healthy San Francisco program "is being watched closely as officials from Sacramento to Washington struggle to invent ways" to extend health care to the uninsured. While most visitors to the city's eateries "so far don't seem to mind footing the bill for expanded health care," the owners of the businesses "are irate, saying they eke out livelihoods on profit margins as slim as two pennies on the dollar," according to the Times.

Joan Simon, a restaurant consultant, said that mid-size cafes and bistros will have to get "leaner and meaner," but "the larger restaurants, the 'destinations,' will raise rates and do fine." However, Simon noted that city officials will need to be cautious if they keep driving up menu prices because increasing costs also could affect the city's tourism (Los Angeles Times, 3/17).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.