Dear editor,

In the “Closing SF health care loophole debates heat up” article, it was reported that last year 860 businesses combined paid “$62.5 million into reimbursement accounts, but only $12.4 million was disbursed” to uninsured employees. However, the new proposal which allows employees better access to the money in their health insurance accounts is unlikely to pass since it “would hurt businesses that rely on the unused money to help keep their operations afloat.”

This is ironic because the San Francisco law mandates that businesses provide funds for health care costs of uninsured workers, but it seems as if the focus of this law is for businesses not to lose money. My perspective is that this is a health care legislation to provide uninsured employees with insurance, so the priority should be the employees and their health insurance. Therefore businesses incentives should not be taken into account. Also the law should regulate how businesses notify their employees of the insurance money accessible to them, since by the numbers, it’s obvious that employees are unaware of the health care money they are provided with. Therefore the solution is more regulation on how businesses provide health care coverage.

Sincerely,

Sarah Jara-Padilla

Berkeley, CA