of the restaurants turning a $1 per person surcharge, it offends me that there are so many restaurants that are putting a percentage on to the bills that we are paying and thanot providg the service. it is fraudulent and misleading. i love when people ask me, what is this $1 for? i can say that everyone has full health insurance, benefits and a 401k match. [applause] we have full benefits. i would just like to thank you, supervisor campos. i would love to see the day when the playing field is leveled and every restauranteur -- i also want to appreciate everybody who comes to my restaurants, for writing everybody with full benefits. supervisor campos: one thing

that i keep hearing, it is impossible for restaurants and businesses to comply with this and still survive. what is your reaction to that? how do you do it? >> when i waited tables, i believe restaurateur's had the hardest job ever. that is not true. it is the dishwashers. i think you can do good and still do well. i have never made as much as i do in my lifetime, and i have been in restaurants for 25 years. i also never had health insurance until i took over. i do not hold the party line and do not believe we cannot make it work. with the help of san francisco and our customers, who have been generous with their $1 payments, it is doable. supervisor campos: thank you.

next speaker please. >> [speaking spanish] >> good morning. i work for the restaurants. i am here because me and my co- workers, we are eligible for hra's, but most of us do not know about it or do not know how to access it.

for a lot of us who do have money, the employers keep it at the end of the year because they do not let us know about it, or they make it complicated for us to access it, especially when our first language is not english. for example, where i work, they told us about our account. when i asked them how to access it, all they told us was to call this number, and then they would help us figure it out. >> [speaking spanish]

>> i had to pay some costs out of my own pocket. when i inquired about these accounts, i was told that i no longer had the money. >> despite all this, my restaurant continues to charge customers this feat. -- fee. some customers ask what it is for, and it is for health care, even though we do not have it, and even some customers refuse to pay the fee. thank you for listening. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please.

i have a few more names to read. [reading names] >> good morning. my name is edwin escobar. this loophole is unjust and unfair. i am a restaurant worker, here in san francisco. three months ago, in april, i was in a bicycle accident in the city. if it was not for this health care ordinates, i would not be able to pay off the emergency bill. i got my bill from sf general, and it was $3,300 for a four- hour visit to the emergency room. i got some stitches, some painkillers. this year alone, i have been

working part-time. this health care is really beneficial. it would be much better to close this loophole. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, supervisors. we are here to support the closing of the loophole. the chinese workers association have been serving the chinese community for 40 years now. our members have high rates of poor health because they are working long hours. i have heard of some people working 17 hours a day, sweat shop conditions. low wages lead to bad housing conditions in sro's, and that leads to bad health.

my aunt was a low-wage worker. she was denied treatment. one day, she died in her sleep. she is survived by her two sons. for folks who do not get treatment, that cost would then be on the taxpayers. also for the chinese community, a lot of people do not speak english. people get for notice. when people get health care, they do not even know if they provide health care, even though they have over 20 workers in their workplace. in one case, a worker wanted to

testify, but she is afraid because of her workplace. her employer changed to the health spending account. you need to close this loophole. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. let me read a few more names. >> my name is paul carey and i work at a hotel in downtown union square. since 2009, when we implemented this health care system, we were not informed at all, like most people here, what it was for and how we could use it. the first year i find out about it was 11 months later, december

2009. we implemented in january. we figured out what this was about. by the time i figured it out, i had already lost $900. some of the workers who work 40 hours, and a half x-amount of dollars, he may have the same amount of dollars as me even though he worked less. we had an employee come down here last year. three weeks later, he was terminated. he had an account that was delinquent. nothing was contributed and in

the meantime, he was terminated. they are after me next. i hope we can close these loopholes. all the information that i collected, helping the people that worked with me, i am the one that set people up with e- mails and so forth. my employer did not do anything. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning, members of the board. i am an analyst of the curve and accountability office. this morning, i am not a representative of diego. i did research for my master's thesis. i conducted a study from january to may 2010. the authors of labor enforcement was interested in how these programs work.

my results will be available after the meeting. through my research, historically, hra's have been used as a consumer health care plan model. these are often offered in tandem with a health spending account. however, although hra's are often offered in tandem with high-tech plants, it is possible to provide these without coverage for catastrophic illnesses. you have also pointed out, controlled by employers since they can decide what they want to cover and whether they want to keep the money or roll it over to employers the following year. i also had the opportunity to

speak to several employee benefit experts who said outside of san francisco, hra's are not offered without a health insurance plan. they were shocked when i mentioned that this was happening in san francisco. with more research, i found several benefits, brokers within and outside san francisco were targeting san francisco employers to sell the stand- alone hra. i have some evidence here that will show -- supervisor campos: do you have a copy of that? >thank you. next speaker please. i am going to read a few names. >> committee members, i am the

senior pastor at the true hope baptist church in hunters view breakpoin. i am on several other community interest groups. we are very concerned about this audience. -- ordinance. i see a moral issue here. here again, we see those who have achieved in our society, trying to balance their situation on the backs of the port. that is a poor choice. the san francisco health care ordinance works. more than 50,000 san franciscans, residents have access to health care through

healthy san francisco. the health ordinance saves taxpayers money. a loophole cheats workers, as we have seen in the committee today. another point i would like to make, closing the loophole in the health care ordinance create scalable playing field of san francisco businesses. currently, the local creates an incentive for employers not to comply with the spirit of the legislation, and that is a devastating thing. not only the you have the intellect and knowledge of it, but the spirit of it. i hope you will improve this

area and make sure the people of san francisco will be adequately represented. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> otis charles. i speak on behalf of the episcopal diocese of california. we wish to show our support for the amendment that you are proposing to the current san francisco health care insurance. nationally, the episcopal church has urged a single payer, universal health care system. what we have in san francisco is very close to this ideal. healthy san francisco works and provides money for those who need health care. it is unfortunate that some unscrupulous small businesses have found a way to make money out of this. the intent of the law, as you know, is to provide business and

affordable way to health care for many who are uninsured, not to make money out of it. we are called to stand with the least in our community. we are here to support the amendment that will protect workers. more than 62 million is being set aside for employees in reimbursement accounts, yet we are told less than 20% of that is being paid out. at the end of the year, the employers take back the money. this is immoral and unacceptable. the richest person gives generously to the needy -- righteous person gives generously to the needy. we are all accountable of how we manage our affairs and the business of our community.

we call to accountability, those who cheat their workers and dishonesty practice their business. we look to you, our legislators, to perfect the laws, in order to protect. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. [reading names] >> good morning. i am here on behalf of health access california. i would like to think the board for your commitment to providing access to health care to all who live and work in san francisco. we recognize san francisco as a leader in health care reform, here in california and

throughout the united states, since the passage of the health care security ordinance. we hope you continue to live up to the promise of providing meaningful care to the population. i ask that you support the amendment to close the loophole in san francisco's health care security ordinance. my focus today is to discuss how young people would benefit from this amendment. contrary to conventional wisdom, young people do get sick. according to the journal of adolescent health, young people have the highest rate of injury- related emergency room visits among all age groups, and 50% of young americans have chronic conditions. young adults need health care benefits. young people do not purchase health care benefits because they cannot afford the cost of coverage. two-thirds of young workers ages 18 to 29 make less than $43,000 a year, and 23% of young adults live below the poverty level.

san francisco workers need this amendment so that when they are injured, they will have access to their accumulated health care fund. i encourage you to forward this to the full board with recommendations to be approved. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning. to the chair, my name is archbishop -- i want to thank you and i want to read some scripture. this loophole is being closed. legislation is meant to come back and correct it. we fully support what you are doing. but let us also say the president of the united states has followed this city and

county's lead for health care. you should give yourselves a round of applause for providing every american with the chance to debate and be involved in health care process. no one has stepped up to the plate but san francisco workers and businesses, which does not happen every day. let me read you a part of the scripture. xromans 12:1,2. your responsibility, as a servant, to be not conform to of this world, but be transferred by the renewing of your minds. that you may provide what is good and acceptable and perfect to god.

in other words, what you are doing today would set the record straight for san francisco workers. you are also doing something that will help pay for this, by bringing more business to san francisco, as well as the america's cup. these things that we are doing today will benefit san francisco tomorrow. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> greetings of peace. i mam the imam of the san francisco muslim society. i want to read to you two versus from a wholly koran. -- holy

koran. this is a from chapter 34 and 35. chapter 34 reminds us on the day of judgment we shall stand and be asked about agreements or covenants that were not filled or honored. 35 moves to talk about the good that comes from using the dry measure to measure grains properly, and urges us to use scales of balance with exactness, and with the good of doing so. for those who may have studied

islam, early on, leaders felt a great burden, that on the day of judgment they would be held as possible for the orphan, for those who might stand a chance of being cheated, or having their money taken away unjustly. will you be held responsible? supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> i am a physician assistant. i work in health care in san francisco since 1982, recently,

at st. luke's. i would like to say something as a mother. when my daughter was 10, her best friend's mother had as much. they had no insurance and she was afraid to call the ambulance. she had an asthma attack and died. there is a myth that people without insurance end up on the county. many of them do, but we should not be causing employers to cut that to happen. we called them welfar them welf. however, many people do not go to the hospital at all and die. i have seen many of them in my career. when healthy san francisco and hra's came into being, i cannot

tell you how happy the patients were to come in to get coverage. i want to say something about employers. i have done a great deal of work in workers' comp, something of a parallel system. employers who do not buy into the system and tell their workers, do not worry, i will pay for it -- which is not possible. then they bribe them to leave the area or the patients simply does not get treatment. this is very common. of course, the burden for worker's comp gets spread out among everyone who plays by the rules. again, i want to express my appreciation for closing the loophole on welfare cheats. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning.

restaurant and hotel workers union. from a union that struggles day in and day out with over hundreds of worksites that would have to compete with the businesses exploiting this loophole, i cannot tell you how galling it is to be back here to fix a problem that we thought we fixed. i was shocked by the economic report that 70% of workers experiencing this phenomenon with hra's are city residents. when we pass this, we thought hra's would be an attractive option to those who live outside of the city. the genius of healthy san francisco, the reason it passed unanimously and signed by the mayor, was that in leveraged our health infrastructure in a way that provided attractive

options for businesses and workers, in particular, who lived in this city. think about the perverse, massive disincentive that this loophole creates for businesses. you can cheat your customers. you can pocket the money by cheating your workers out of what is due to them out of healthy san francisco. and then the city picks up the tab. when workers get sick, their money is not in the hra's, they do not have insurance, they do not enroll in healthy san francisco. they end up at the general clinics and it is the city picking up the tab. this legislation does not pave a new road. this is nothing new. this only reaffirms what the previous board passed unanimously. it is time to pass this on. supervisor campos: thank you.

next speaker please. >> vice-president of the labor council, founding member of jobs with justice. we are all here to say one simple thing. five years ago, some of us in this room worked hard to get this health care legislation passed, unanimously, by the mayor. i just heard the mayor's speech about what a great law it was. in my opinion, these are unscrupulous employers who are not living up to their obligation and taking our money, at the restaurants or small retail stores. this has got to be stopped. the reason it has got to be stopped is because it is growing. this loophole is becoming worse.

please, passed this loophole, let's be done with it and get on to the other important business at hand. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. as an advocate for sb810, mark leno's universal health care bill, i applaud san francisco for having healthy san francisco. it is a great law. it is only one of its kind in the country. i am supporting closing this loophole, leveling the playing field and stopping these sheets -- cheats. that money is necessary for the program. we need every penny from every employer that