The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request to halt a San Francisco mandate requiring employers to contribute to a citywide healthcare access program.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, who decides emergency Supreme Court appeals from California, denied the emergency stay by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which is locked in an ongoing legal battle over the employer requirement. The high court has not yet decided whether it will hear the association’s full appeal on the program.
All but the smallest employers are required by city ordinance to provide health insurance to full- and part-time workers or pay into a fund that offers affordable access for the uninsured to healthcare through city clinics and participating hospitals, in a program dubbed Healthy San Francisco. The employer requirement began in January 2008.
