Posted on 12/01/2004 12:50:52 PM PST by SmithL
SACRAMENTO -- A ballot measure that would have required some employers to pay the bulk of workers' health insurance was narrowly defeated, election officials said Wednesday after the final results were tallied.
Proposition 72, which was opposed by business leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, failed 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent, the secretary of state's office reported. The measure was defeated by a margin of 202,854 votes.
Counties had until Tuesday to count absentee and provisional ballots and turn in the results to state election officials.
The measure would have fundamentally reworked California's health care system by requiring some businesses to provide workers with insurance.
Employers with at least 50 workers would have paid at least 80 percent of the cost of health insurance for employees who put in more than 100 hours a month.
Businesses would have had to provide health insurance privately or pay into a state-run fund that would have purchased it for workers.
Only a handful of other states require employers to provide such insurance. For that reason, health care advocates and politicians around the nation closely watched the vote on Proposition 72.
The measure was supported by labor unions and medical organizations.
The governor called Proposition 72 a burden on business
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Wow, that was close. That would have put a lot of small businesses out of business.
There was a report this morning that this measure was ahead. I guess someone screwed up.
It would have, or it would have put people out of work. If I had a company that had 60 - 70 employees, I would try very hard to make cuts and efficiency improvememnts to keep my head count at 49. A company with, say, 2-- or 250 folks on payroll would probably have to lay off 10 or 15% of their staff to pay the benefit for those that remain, or raise prices and get the money to pay for it from your customers, which puts you in cometitive disadvantage with a smaller, or out-of-state company. Any way you look at it, it ain't pretty.
They'll try again and again until they get it - the libs NEVER give up :-(
They'll try again and again until they get it - the libs NEVER give up :-(
Not to worry, it'll be back. No bad idea is ever dropped for long in California. The legislature is a perpetual motion machine of bad lawmaking.
Yeah cause due to gerrymandering, the most extreme Lefties get returned to office time and time again. They never have to pay the price for - no they actually get rewarded by the voters for failure. Classic Liberalism 101.
Companies are going to be scared to offer worker benefits for fear the government will begin to force them to continue to do so.
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