On the Mend: The Ninth Circuit Gives San Francisco’s Health Care Security Ordinance the Green Light (For Now)

Abstract

If Justice Louis Brandeis were alive to witness San Francisco’s recent experiment with universal health care legislation, he might amend his famous characterization of the states as “laboratories of democracy” to include municipalities as well. In San Francisco, where ten percent of residents have no health insurance and where fifteen percent of businesses provide no health coverage for their employees, the Board of Supervisors recently passed the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance (Ordinance), which funds a network of primary care services for uninsured residents. While the Ordinance has, in the main, met with general approval, its provision mandating contributions from local businesses that do not meet minimum health spending requirements is the subject of ongoing litigation. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled in the city’s favor, thereby allowing the spending provision to go forward pending a full appeal on the merits of the case.