Sept. 19, 2006 – Last week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have forced large companies to provide health coverage to their employees.
Schwarzenegger said the bill was a misguided way to solve the state?s healthcare problems.
The Fair Share Health Care bill would have required businesses with 10,000 or more employees in the state to spend 8 percent of their payroll on healthcare coverage for workers, or contribute to a state healthcare fund instead.
Schwarzenegger argued the bill would "do little more than lead to expensive legal challenges."
His decision follows a July court decision that struck down a similar bill in Maryland.
Advocates argued the bill would have helped recapture some of the cost of healthcare for low-wage workers whose employers provide no coverage, and who cannot afford it themselves.
The governor also said he was against "singling out large employers and requiring them to spend an arbitrary amount on health care."
But Schwarzenegger also recently vetoed a bill that would have created a state-funded single-payer system, which would have taken responsibility for healthcare coverage out of employers? hands altogether.
