San Francisco to work on integrating its health care law with PPACA
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San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee has re-established the task force whose recommendations years ago became the basis of the city's landmark 2008 health care spending law to develop guidance for employers on how the statute will integrate with the federal health care reform law.
“Implementing the Affordable Care Act is a top priority for San Francisco,” Mr. Lee said in a statement. “However, we also need to provide guidance to our local businesses about how the ACA integrates” with the San Francisco law, Mayor Lee added.
Under the law, employers with 100 or more employees in San Francisco are required this year to spend $2.33 per hour per employee on health care, with the spending requirement rising to $2.44 per hour in 2014.
Employers with between 20 and 99 employees have to spend at least $1.55 per hour this year and $1.63 per hour in 2014. Employers with fewer than 20 employees are exempt from the requirement.
That spending requirement can be satisfied in a variety of ways, including payment of employees' health insurance premiums and contributions to a city fund.
However, one way of satisfying the spending requirement — contributing to stand-alone health reimbursement arrangements — to reimburse employees for health care expenses would, effective in 2014, not be allowed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
This is because the federal law bars plans that impose annual and lifetime dollar limits on coverage of health care expenses.
The task force, the Universal Healthcare Council, will be headed by Barbara Garcia, director of the city's Department of Public Health.
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