Leaders from Government, Business, Labor, Medicine and Academia To Discuss Impact of California's Controversial ``Play or Pay'' Employer Mandated Health Insurance Law

Business Wire, April 26, 2004

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2004

The impact of the controversial state law requiring many California companies to provide health insurance to their employees will be examined at a one-day conference featuring prominent figures from government, business, labor, medicine and academia.

The conference, "Expanding Employment-Based Health Insurance in California, Senate Bill 2 - Issues and Options," will be held at the Century Plaza Hotel on Friday, May 7. Among those attending are former San Francisco Mayor and California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, health care authority Alain Enthoven, the California Labor Federation's Art Pulaski, Assemblyman Keith Richman, Jack Kyser of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, California HealthCare Foundation President Dr. Mark Smith, Blue Shield of California Foundation President Dr. Jeffrey Rideout, and many other leaders from the business, labor and health care communities.

SB2 was signed into law in the final days of the Davis Administration after a bitter fight and is now the subject of a repeal measure on the November election ballot. Strongly opposed as a "job killer" by some business leaders, the law requires companies with 200 or more workers to provide family coverage to their employees as of Jan. 1, 2006, with mandated individual coverage phased in for firms of 50 or more workers the following year. The law, which is widely viewed as a test case for similar legislation in other states and possibly on a national scale, would provide coverage for approximately 1 million of the 6.3 million Californians who are without health insurance.

"The conference will bring together some of the best minds in academia, health care, public policy, business and labor, as well as representatives of the uninsured, for an open appraisal of the effects of SB2," said Dr. E. Richard Brown, founder and Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, which is the primary sponsor. "Our goals are to foster a deeper understanding of SB2 among the affected parties, create an opportunity for dialogue on neutral ground, and provide information to all those interested in health care reform on the many issues surrounding employer-mandated health insurance."

Co-sponsors of the conference, whose proceedings are open to the media, include The California Endowment, California HealthCare Foundation, Blue Shield of California Foundation, California Program on Access to Care and California Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board. Registration information and additional details are available at, www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu under "SB 2 Registration."

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research was established in 1994 and is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers. The premier source of key health-policy information for California, the Center is based in the UCLA School of Public Health and is also affiliated with the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research.