On Monday, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss the Golden Gate Restaurant Association's challenge of a Healthy San Francisco provision requiring employers to contribute to workers' health care coverage, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/25).
Healthy San Francisco launched in 2007 and aims to provide health care access for all city residents.
GGRA Challenge
The restaurant association has taken issue with the program's requirement that all city employers with 20 or more workers:
- Contribute to employee health care spending accounts;
- Pay into the city's fund for Healthy San Francisco; or
- Provide health insurance benefits (California Healthline, 6/9).
Kevin Westlye, director of GGRA, said such payments are extremely burdensome for many smaller restaurants.
The restaurant association lost its case at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/25).