Transcripts For SFGTV 20130805

Also a step in the right direction, however, i would like to bring your attention to an article earlier this week, it is referred to a letter to the editor from sibyl man, the assembly men say that they understand the two laws are compatible and complimentary and told readers, dont take our word of the City Attorney, we did, this suggests they reviewed the City Attorneys legal analysis and what anyone had to do is ask for it. At least as of tuesday, they had not responded. The City Attorneys written analysis has not been provided to the public. Im surprised that this analysis who should be noted is no longer a client of the City Attorney should be made available to the public. The Key Stakeholders has all the information to move forward as quickly as possible, the written analysis be provided to the public as part of this hearing. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon, my name is rob black, im here on behalf of the golden gate restaurant association, we share mayor lees goil that implementing the Affordable Care act is top priority for san sa ns and we look at participating in the Health Care Council to ensure all workers will be able to access all health care benefits. The law has also expanded the scope of Financial Assistance to individuals through an expansion of medi cal, a federal subsidy of individuals that make less than 400 of the poverty line, in addition, the law has altered what kind of Health Insurance products are available on the market requiring all plans to [inaudible] it is these changes that have left local employers, especially those who employ part time workers in a quandary of how to comply with the health care act. We are looking to the city for that guidance. Contrary to what youve been told, our goal is not to dismantle healthy San Francisco, we want it to provide Health Access to individuals who are not covered under the Affordable Care act, however we mrao efr its irresponsible to encourage employee that is have an individual mandate to have full insurance under the law to accept a health plan that doesnt require plans under federal law, to get subsidized coverage and their dependents through covered california, we look forward to working through these complex issues so we can successfully implement the sca, those that fall under the safety net continue to have healthy choices in San Francisco. Thank you. Jim lazarus, khim beer of commerce, because there was a lot of testimony earlier, one of the solutions is going to be passage of the comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. The chamber has supported that from day 1 and its clear that many of the people testifying today would obviously benefit from a pathway to citizenship. We struggle with the same issues in 2006 that were talking about today, 2006 when we sat down with business and labor and civic and the Mayors Office to develop the Health Care Security ordinance. Local mandates, competitive disadvantages, programs of access to health that are not insurance and not portable, the issues of urisa and federal constraints on what can be mandated at the local level have all confronted us as recently as two years ago with your legislation as to the role of Health Reimbursement accounts. We look forward to an opportunity to work with the board of supervisors, the mayor and the Public Health department on seeing how this legislation can properly duck tail with the new federal mandate that will be confronting individuals in 2014 and the businesses in 2015. We believe that there is a role to working together to come up with an economically viable solution because it comes back to time and time again, what is affordable for the employee and what is affordable for the employer, how do you create jobs, its alright if you have a higher minimum wage and its already if you have some Health Insurance come framing that employer, if those costs prevent somebody else from getting employed and staying on unemployment, thats not good beer the person thats still on unloiment, thats the balance weve all struggled with and we look forward to working with supervisor campos and the mayor. I do want to take this opportunity to thank mr. Lazarus, mr. Black, mr. Wright for being here. I think its important we try to Work Together and i appreciate the fact that youve been sitting here and, you know, San Francisco has figured this before and thats why it was important in reference to what mr. Wright said to make sure we get the City Attorney on record so people have this guidance and that clarity is important and i think we got it today. We appreciate that. Thank you, next speaker. Good evening, my name is donna smith and i am a native of San Francisco and resident of Hunters Point bayview, it is imperative that you keep the hdso because insurance under the healthy San Francisco will be crucial for helping to meet the cost of caring for the uninsured. Now, speaking of the uninsured, the San Francisco insurance will allegation be affected. The healthy San Francisco has definitely helped some of the families in Hunters Point bayview. We do have agencies like the southeast center, the Bayview Medical Center and we have health fairs throughout our community but we need more outreach, we need our families to know how to obtain these services in insurance, so i want to see more outreach out in Hunters Point bayview, and im sure you are aware in my community that we have a high rate of asthma, diabetes and cancer and also trauma, a lot of trauma related issues are in Hunters Point bayview and this causes a problem with our children. I am an employee with the unified school district, and i would just like to see that the parents have more access of insurance and know the Health Benefits available to them because you must realize that good health is a conduit for closing this educational gap for children of color, so please keep this program going, its very important for our community in Hunters Point bayview, thank you. Im going to call a few more names. calling speaker names . Good afternoon f, my name is johnny arengo and ive been a resident in the city for the last 15 years and im here in support of the healthy San Francisco for the following two reasons, i work in a downtown restaurant for more than 11 years with no medical benefits of any kind, the Restaurant Owner made sure i got less than 30 hours per week to be ineligible for my kind of medical benefit, my dental and vision care went from 2 thousand to 3 thousand dollars a year, my one year doctor visitors went from 1 thousand to 2 thousand dollars a year considering the fact that i havent had major illnesses in the past year, my partner was admitted in the emergency room, the doctors said if he hadnt been taken to the emergency raoment, that his condition was worsening, he wouldnt have made it through and died in a matter of hours, hes a healthy man again and doesnt have to worry about medical bills, thanks to the benefits of healthy San Francisco in emergency medical situations. These two examples illustrate in one hand the costly effects that the elimination of healthy San Francisco can have in the pockets of rest ranted workers. On the other hand, healthy San Francisco is an affordable option for our workers who work less than 30 hours per week at the city post minimum wage. I want to remind you that restaurant workers are the face of San Francisco in the sense that we take pride in the services we provide to rez densest and tourists by means of entertainment and pleasure. I assure you that restaurant workers are happy with the benefits of the healthy San Francisco program, we will make our economy a healthy one. Im going to read a couple more names. reading speaker names . Next d supervisors, my name is connie ford and im one of the vicepresident of the San Francisco labor council, you can tell by the color of my hair that ive been around for a while, i know that san franciscans Love Good Health care and health care for all of our citizens, back in the 90s, we passed six initiatives to Better Health care for our citizens, we know the single payer or many of us is the on the answer and in 94 or 96 that the state ballot that passed, that the single payer initiative, san franciscans passed it, californians didnt, san franciscans passed it, when we got to cfos, we couldnt have it all by itself in San Francisco, so we brought in all of the different force, we brought the federal government funding, the state funding and the employers funding to help provide access for everything, acso is not just San Francisco healthy, healthy San Francisco, its both, the mandate from the employer so they should pay their share as well as everybody, and as your attorney said today, we think aca is coming in, were excited about the possibilities, we wanted to work but we need both systems in this city to ensure that all of our san franciscans, undocumented people who work less than 30 hours a week, all san franciscans can have access to health care, please, its not that complicated, people wont make it that comply skated, we need both systems implemented as soon as possible, thank you very much. Next speak e please. Er my name is dina long and im the polling si director at the clinic consortium, we serve about 10 of San Franciscos overall population and we serve a lot of people in healthy San Francisco program, the consortium is dedicated to enrolling outreach and enrollment for medi cal and ko frned california, democratic speaker pal loes s i said were awarded funds to do this. It addressing one of the problems that we need to do aggressive out rao efrp, we plan to do that, hoer, there are going to be a lot of people left out and the issue is do they get an organized system of care which is healthy San Francisco, under healthy San Francisco, each patient is established in the Community Based patient centered health home, they have their own consistent primary care provider, thats one of the unique things about healthy San Francisco, it provides patients an organized patient care. Its they provide a variety of services that enhance work, through healthy San Francisco, Community Clinic consortium support the city of high users of city, tepwe recommend we aggressively do outreach and keep healthy San Francisco, thank you. Next speak e please. Hello, my name is [inaudible] taylor, im sure youre bombarded with call tos do the right thing, so im just going to say be clever today, i would ask you to pay close attention to whos going to be on the Mayors Commission and the voices and the backgrounds and where theyre coming from. Youre going to have an unrealistic view of obama care implementation, or thats what my worry is. If other ruminating of this advice may have a list of anecdotal evidence and howell they take care of their employees, if you must look to anecdotal evidence, look to the young kids in their 20s who are trying to get a start in their restaurants or any other business, we take kids who can get hurt easily and we have to give them an option for health care and its hard to pay 2 thousand dollars for one bedroom apartment for this town, so ive been one of those kids and my family and my friends are all those kids, they come from service backgrounds, they work hard in kitchens and they need a place without having to share a bedroom because to share a bedroom could cost them an extra thousand dollars, its ir realistic and irresponsible to have them pay out each month. So, be clever, find a way to reinforce this legislation, its a standard thats unparalleled and should be enhanced, should not be backed down on and you should not leave it alone and make it stronger and not weaken it, for those Restaurant Owners to see it wadeable, destroyed, that would be an opportunity for them, so please dont give into that pressure, thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon, my name is dana, im a member of congregation [inaudible] and a leader with the San Francisco organization, our members lacked Health Insurance, we found out about supervisor am ya n knows plan, one of our congregates signed up for sf healthy as soon as she could, they found a tumor and removed it saving her life, she got me to join with sfpe and has been working on Health Care Issues ever since, i was part of the task force convened by Public Health to see how the Affordable Care act. The key finding of the task force will be that there will be a continued meet for Health Care Safety net before the full implementation. Were here today because some players value profit over the health of their employees and seek to abolish the employers pending requirement of the health care record nans, however, that would undermine the funding for health care in San Francisco. If it had to come out of the general fund, it would go unmet, also wed use the requirement it had in encouraging employers to ensure their workers. In some, the way to preserve San Franciscos landmark universal care safety net is to keep the Health Care Security ordinance as it is. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, please. Good afternoon, my name is rosa, im here on behalf of Health Access california, our mission is for everyone here in california to have access of quality affordable ho elt care, i would like the supervisors commitment in providing Health Care Services for everyone who lives and works here in San Francisco. The Affordable Care act, i wanted to say a few things related to the Affordable Health care act, the Affordable Health care act is a historic opportunity to expand Meaningful Health coverage, some key achievements include 640 thousand californians to got mep throughout the health program, theres been 4 thousand young adults who are between the age of 18 to 26 who have been able to stay under their parents coverage because of the Affordable Care act and theres 21 thousand californians who were denied Health Coverage because they have a preexisting condition who are able to get Health Insurance through californias aca funded preexisting condition insurance pool, so thats all the good news and medi cal expansion is going to happen which will provide health care to children and lowincome adults as well as the exchange here in california, but what i wanted to know is that still despite these forting, theres going to be 3 to 4 Million People that wont have Health Coverage next year here in San Francisco, thats going to include undocumented immigrants which you heard some of those voices here, but in addition to that, its going to be people who miss the enrollment period, its going to be lowincome residents that are lowincome but not quite like to the 15 thousand dollars, so i wanted to encourage the supervisors to do whatever that needs to be done as far as maintaining healthy families. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors, and thank you for holding this hearing. I dont think its been a two member board on the same day. The 6 thousand teachers and professionals who keep our School Working and serving the kids of our city. Theres no question the educators, the pillars of our great city is health care and edge kaix, so this morning, we were talking about the crisis facing city college, but this afternoon, it seems that we have more of an opportunity, so as aca comes online, comes to San Francisco, because of our model, San Francisco health program, we can fill in the holes, the loopholes, the human loopholes in the federal program, so supervisors, you have the opportunity to make sure that our students from undocumented families, from the families that fall between the lines, that their families get care. Now, i know that supervisor campos and many in the city family are thinking about how to bring more Community Support to our schools and a foundation of that and one that educators, Community Organizers and people business are talking about, how do we best make sure that our kids as theyre doing their best in school have a healthy, successful family to go home with, so we educates of San Francisco urge you to make sure that San Francisco promotes and makes better the federal health fund, thanks. Thank you, mr. Tray, its always good to see teachers in city hall, so keep doing it. Good afternoon, supervisors, my name is adraoe yan and im with planned parenthood based here in San Francisco, good to see you, supervisor campos, we strongly encourage you to retain healthy San Francisco, [inaudible] we know first hand the importance of the healthy San Francisco plays and health being in our community, while planned parenthood supports the Affordable Health act and its access that Health Insurance provides, two key problems continue to exist, Health Insurance will not be affordable to many people and many people will not be eligible for any sort of Health Coverage under the nca, affordability, more lowincome people will be eligible for expanded medi cal, Health Insurance covered will still not be affordable for many, especially in a high cost city like San Francisco, people will not be able to afford this health insurance premium, a 2012 survey of planned parenthood clients showed that 60 of our patients had no Health Insurance because they couldnt afford any monthly premium whatsoever, 28 more couldnt afford more than 50 hours a month, accessabilities, we heard it here, three of four million californians will fall through the crack, our undocumented and immigrant families will not be eligible and have been shut out of the family, these folks are important people to our community and it is important that we ensure they have Health Care Access to them at all times. Again, planned parenthood supports healthy San Francisco and were doing a tremendous amount of outreach getting people enrolled in expanded medi cal and covered california. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Hi, my name is brenda, im a seiu 1021 member and i work at San Francisco general and ive been there over 30 years, so i remember the days when we were going around when the union rep was dragging me to synagogues everywhere else talking to the public to making sure healthy San Francisco happened, i see every day the results of it, i see the all the people that we helped that didnt get help before, now we dont have to turn around people that used to get partial care because they didnt have Health Insurance, we do need that. I think we also need to say is that theres not enough money in the department of Public Health to meet the goals that were going to have to meet to nabbing sure every single san franciscan is covered. We do the best we can, the stresses are really strong right now and the workers, the ones doing the work, and we put in all we can because we believe in the mission and we want every Single Person to be covered but i think also you have to keep in mind that to absorb all of these people in San Francisco, the system, its going to have to grow, and so its a choice of does San Francisco want to have this system, do you want every single man and woman and child doverbacker covered, documented or not documented or dont you, because unless you put enough money in the system to do that, its going to be difficult and i telly support healthy San Francisco and it cannot go away. Thank you, i want to read a few more names. calling speaker names . Good afternoon, supervisoress, my name is karen and im the vicepresident of representation with seiu 1021, what healthy San Francisco has done for San Francisco is it has educated people, it has helped people and its also increased lives in San Francisco, it has educated people in the fact that they know that they can go and see a physician and then get care for themselves and do preventive measures, it has helped people because people that normally go to the doctor and we would see at San Francisco general who are just going through the emergency room would end up being statistics, but through healthy San Francisco, it has allowed them to have an actual system that has worked for them that has increased the livelihood of so many of your youth, middle age and as i call the sun shine people, the people who thrive past the age of 70 and 75, and so with this, it has made such a difference so i urge us to continue to keep healthy San Francisco in San Francisco treading and sending the model for the state of california but as well as the nation, so as supervisor campos has said, we like to say obama care, healthy San Francisco, we like to say that and keep that. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker, i have a couple more names. calling speaker names . My name is don beck ler, i chair single parent now, our group is part of the coalition from the Hotel Workers and the San Francisco labor council, i had a cancer operation, what i see here, this attack on this program is another business, businesss endless attempt to find cheap workers and to get public subsidy, thats whats going on with this program, its okay to keep businesses paying their fair share because once we start losing revenues from business and they find ways to not pay their fair share, then the city budget becomes tight and you can bet your Bottom Dollar that theyll say its the retirees Pension Funds that thes the problem in San Francisco which theyre not paying their fair share so i encourage you to the to join this part of ideology that prevents us as we can slash our way to pros teary, thats not true. I want to say a word about the chamber of commerce, they lied, they did not fight for this program, they ran as against it in the newspaper, they tried and they foukt it all along, bh they saw the handwriting on the wall that the community and the supervisors and labor, were going to have the same path, they turned on themselves and they tried to get [inaudible] from any business license in the city who would have meant that bank in america and wells fargo paid the same 25 fee or a selfemployed plumber who