State Senator Don Perata would like all Californians to have health insurance. Having everyone covered isn’t a bad idea. Senator Perata would do this by mandating that all businesses provide health insurance for their employees (with minimum coverage guarantees), or they would have employees and employers pay into a state fund that would purchase health insurance, with the hope that the state would be able to negotiate low rates. Oh yes, and everyone would have to submit proof of coverage on their tax returns, turning the Franchise Tax Board into the policeman in this effort.
Hmmm, this looks like a tax on employers. And if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it probably is a duck.
The Orange County Register editorializes on this misguided measure today. And Jon Coupal, head of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, has an op-ed piece in the Metropolitan News-Enterprise today.
Read them both, and let your legislators and the Governator know your view.