It appears that legislation for a mandatory health care system with employer mandates may pass the California legislature. Apparently the Governator and our legislators haven’t figured out that high taxes drive out small business from California.
Luckily for you and I there’s a problem looming for the plan: ERISA. Passed in 1974, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act prohibits states from mandating health insurance. The Supreme Court has upheld the prohibition, and an appeals court recently upheld the law (again) when Maryland tried to mandate health care benefits on Wal-Mart. As this story in the San Diego Union-Tribune makes plain, the Democrats and the Governator don’t think much of the federal law. It’s a pity that they don’t think much of small business either.