is 54 percent and i think that there is a misconception that money is sitting around that we are recaptured after 24 months because the employees did not spend it was because the employers were being mean and cruel. the city's own mra, and only 54 percent utilization and that says that there are people who have these accounts, who don't need them. some of those people are people who have insurance already because under the employee spending requirement of the city if your insurance cost less than the hourly spending requirements you still have to meet that requirement in another way, and the health reimbursement were birthed out the fact that the employers needed to reach a dollar amount. and we always contended with the implementation of the affordable care act that this law should be amended to allow the employers that provide insurance that is aca compliant and which has a threshold of 9.5 percent of income, and that those people should not have an

additional spend, and we additionally contend that especially because of the individual mandate that if an employer offers the insurance and they should not be on the hook for creating an account because the people have declined insurance that has to be affordable to them by federal law and the other thing that is problematic to us is that because of the change of the affordable care act, the smaller businesses and those with less than 50, it is much more challenging in this environment to provide the healthcare and it will be easier for the people to get a better deals and it is a real problem that we need to look at and the businesses have the same challenge of finding the plans and when the employees don't take the plans up it makes it difficult for them to provide the affordable insurance. and we really need to look at who is actually an mra accounts and who are in hra accounts on many of those people who actually don't need coverage, in san francisco. and they are other reasons, let's change the law to make it more compliant with the affordable care act. and focus on providing

insurance, and i think that is what we all want to do. >> thank you. >> i am going to read a few more names, marindugan, connie forge. and alisa messer. >> okay. >> good morning, supervisors, campos and yee, i am the vice president for the para professionals for the united educators of san francisco and also a working parent and i represent the parent professionals who are low income workers in sfusd. and i know that the struggle that it is to keep the health insurance and to make ends meet. uesf supports compromise because it will close the loophole to be sure that the money goes to the working people and there are laws that the public health department to come up with a plan to cover working san francisco. and we appreciate co-sponsors supervisor kim, mar, and avalos and we applaud supervisor yee for his commitment to close the

loophole and now let's hope that mayor lee and the board of supervisors move out to cover all working san francisco, as the affordable care act is implemented thank you. >> thank you, very much. next speaker? >> my name is amber bauer and i am the political director at the san francisco labor council and i want to applaud supervisor campos for being steadfast on your work on this issue and the supervisors who have come forward, yee, in support of, and with the political will to really close this loophole. i have had the opportunity to work with some of the workers that are affected by this, and you know, this is not about, not wanting to use the money or not being able it is not being able to use the money. and i get to go back today, hopefully after this vote, today and say, you know, this city does work for you. we do care about you.

and we have worked for years to close this loophole. and you guys deserve this money. it is your money, and you use it for healthcare, and this is what the legislation was really brought about to do and i feel like we are use of it and i appreciate then and the work of dph on this issue, to bring it forward and thank you, again. and for all of the support here as well. >> thank you. >> next speaker? >> hi, my name is brenda bares and i work in dph at one of the primary care clinics and i am happy that this is coming forward and this is needed and i think that one thing that has notd been talked about is what that money could be spent on to improve the people's healthcare out comes which is also one of the purposes of the affordable care act. and education, for the patients. and to keep them healthy before they end up in problems or in the hospital, could be expanded and there are so many things that need to be expanded and

the specialty care and primary care so that we can get everybody in and the people can stop having the problem of not being able to get an appointment and these are the things that i have seen and thank you very much supervisor campos for bringing this forward and this is something that is needed. those of us who work on the healthcare on the ground providing this healthcare we know that it is something that has to happen and so thank you very much. and keep. >> and thank you very much. >> next speaker. >> ariana, political coordinator, and the tender loin, thank you supervisor campos and i also want to thank, supervisor mar, yee, and avalos and kim for their support on this legislation and it is very important, and i am glad that we are getting closer to having a legislation, that does close the loophole, and it is a difficult thing to close and that we continue to provide

healthcare for all of san francisco thank you for your time. >> next speaker. >> scott, houty, cal insurance, and let me start on a personal note. i own a small business and i have 28 employees. and i provide insurance, and i pay 100 percent to the insurance. and this year, for the 6th year in a row, i got over a ten percent increase, and i got a 15 percent increase. and but all raises the issue of affordability. a lot of businesses don't have the margins that i do and they just can't afford that. but the two comments that i would like to make is first of all i think before moving through with this, i think that it is important that we get a statement from the federal government that this is legal. we know that the health reimbursement act was found to be stand alone was found to be illegal. and we would contend that you need a statement from the federal government saying that

it is. the other thing that is important on that, is that if you set up an hra account now, and if it was determined, well, if you set up an hra account now as stand alone, you are subject to 100 dollar a day penalty and if the mra, was found to be similar, to be hra, the businesses that now are using the mra, could be subject to 100 day penalty and i think that it is important to we get a determination from the federal government and the second part, is if you go into an mra, that does not, and if you have got over 50 employees that does not meet your obligation for aca and so you would have to pay everything, for the hcso, plus, you would be subject to 2000 dollars per employer penalties over and above that. and i think this needs to be looked at more closely and hope that you will consider that. thank you. >> thank you, very much.

next speaker, please. >> maruen dugan and i am a registered nurse. and i am a san francisco resident and thank you to supervisors campos, mar, avalos, kim and my supervisor yee for your work on this. and as i speak in favor of closing the loophole and to be sure that all of the patients get the access to needed services and access is a huge issue and i see, when the patients finally get access and they struggle to get the basic and the needed follow-up care. and many healthcare workers across all struggle whether we have limited insurance or no insurance, and i just think that it is a tragedy. and obviously i have the healthcare as a human right and it is a tragedy, as well as in the city that the basic services and we struggle to provide for the patients. >> thank you. very much. >> next speaker, please? >> supervisors, connie, from the san francisco labor council. one of my new jobs is to be out in the bay view hunters point

organizing over 10,000 of our members who live there and i want to tell you something, about the statistics there. this issue, this issue about closing the loophole is about providing access to every single san franciscan. and without closing this loophole, we are missing a 90 million dollars that is owed to them and and the workers get

the coverage they need, my god son cannot longer go to the college and he is working to pay rent and he does not have a cell phone and cannot afford health insurance and just in my neighborhood, the other day at my local market, the woman who was always, smiling when i send

money to my niece to pay for her healthcare, through western union, she is gone, that is one day, because she found out that her sister with the new affordable care act is going to be $700 a month and does not how the family is going to be able to afford it, and any way that we can support making affordable healthcare, really affordable through any channels i strongly support and i am the only person in my family that has a job that has healthcare and it is really difficult to watch them suffer. >> thank you, very much. >> and next speaker, and any member of the public who has not spoken but would like to speak, please come on up. >> thank you very much. >> hi, i am alisa messer city college of san francisco and the labor council and i want to thank the supervisors for bringing this forward and for your leadership, and supervisor campos on this issue. and a week ago, at this time, actually, i was watching more

than 50 nurses cross the stage of the city college of san francisco, graduation in their white caps and gown and it was a celebration moment and in fact we had many graduates, and city council of san francisco trains more healthcare workers than any other institution in the bay area, and it is an important place, but unfortunately i know that those nurses and those newly graduated nurses who are crossing the stage i know that my students in my classes, whether they are working in the restaurant industry, or in all sorts of places in san francisco, and frequently can't afford healthcare. and go without healthcare. and i see it all of the time and they told me their stories all of the time. and this closing this loophole, is incredibly important, and we thank you for your leadership on this, and it has been more than eight years and there are 90 million dollars, that goes untaped that i know from talking with my students, that they don't know about, that they don't have access to. and so, we need to do that

education, but we also need to insure that we close this loophole so that san francisco students, and that all of san francisco has access to healthcare including our immigrant communities and whatever else that we can do. this is a very important start. and it is an important move. and so, thank you for your leadership and it is time to do it and let's close the loophole. >> thank you, very much. >> are the young people,

that need our help in the future and i am really happy that we gave continued this item for a short length of time to strengthen the language so that we are sure that we will have a successful program. and so, not only will i want to make a recommendation, that we send it off to the full board and the positive recommendation, but i also would like to co-author at this point. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> thank you, very much. >> supervisor, yee, thank you.

and one of my make a motion, to amend the legislation, along the lines that have been outlined before, and you have a copy of the amended language. and if we can amend that and the motion is to amend it. so we can do that without objection? >> without objection. before we vote, i just want to make a couple of points and i will be very brief. again, i want to thank all of the speakers that have come out. and you know, the thing about these policy specifics and sometimes good people who have different perspectives and i understand and respect that but i do want to provide some context. yes, affordability is the issue of the day in san francisco. but, you cannot talk about affordability and only focus on

housing. a big component of the city being affordable is the ability of any individual to actually have access to healthcare. and the reality is that someone is paying for what is happening right now. and what is happening in these businesses is that these businesses to the extent that they are not spending this money on healthcare, they are balancing the books, on the backs of workers. and so the question is not whether or not something needs to be done but whether or not the status quo is correct and i have a problem with 26,000 workers being denied access to healthcare and i appreciate some of the comments that were made and the reference to those people who as i supposedly have the low skills. and there are still people, and they still have healthcare

needs basic needs and the fact that they may not have the high skills that others may have, does not mean that their kids are not entitled to see a dentist once in a while. and does that mean that if a woman is pregnant that she does not have the right to go see a doctor to make sure that she has a healthy baby? having low skills does not mean that somehow you are not going to have access to the very basic thing that a human being needs, which is healthcare and i want to note and i want to close today, with a quote, of someone that i admire who talked about the importance of healthcare and said, and that is dr. martin luther king. and this is what he said, of all of the forms of inequality, injustice, and healthcare, is the most shocking and inhumane.

i believe that dr. king spoke many truths and had many points of wisdom. but i really appreciative that he captured how critical and how basic healthcare is to anyone's existence. and it does not, allow someone to live in san francisco and to afford to stay in san francisco, if they have housing and if at the same time, their kids are sick, and that is why this is so basic and so fundamental, to who we are. and so, i am very proud to have the co-sponsorship of supervisor yee, and i want to thank you, supervisor. and again, i want to thank all of the people that have come out to speak, on this item. and so with that, if we could have a motion, to have this item move forward? >> with a recommendation? >> a motion, with the moving

forward the ordinance, with these amendments. >> so, motion to move this item forward as amended? if we can take that without objection? >> without objection. >> thank you. [ applause ] and mr. clerk, do we have any other business before the committee? >> there is no other business. >> thank you. meeting adjourned. thank you.

>> i want to learn more about it. >> social networking and e-mail. >> i want to know how to use it. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> divisional divide is a divide between those with access to use digital tools and those who don't. >> with young people, having computers and i just don't know. they're doing it fast. so, i want to know. >> not knowing how to navigate the internet or at a loss of what to do. >> we don't have a computer. >> we're a nonprofit that unites organizations and volunteers to transform lies

through literacy. our big problem right now is the broadband opportunity program. a federally funded project through the department of aging. so, we're working in 26 locations. our volunteers are trained to be tutors and trainers, offering everything from basic classes all the way to genealogy and job search. >> to me computers, knowing how to use it. >> i think it's really important to everybody and possibly especially seniors to get enough of these skills to stay in touch. >> it's been fun. with seniors, to get them out of their homes. >> so they can connect with their family members. or their family members.

>> [speaking in spanish]. >> so, what we focus on is transferring skills from volunteer to learner to help them get onto facebook, find housing in crisis, be able to connect with friends and family. >> i decided to teach what i learn and it made me want to give back. i discovered that seniors do a lot of review. >> i am a beginner, so, little by little i learn. i learn a lot now. >> if you get the basics, you can learn it. it's simple. it's easy. once you know it.

and that's what i want to learn, how to make my life easier and more knowledgeable with the computer. >> so, what we need right now are more people who speak languages other than english or in addition to english who can give their time during the day and who care deeply ideally about helping to close the divide. >> it's a humbling experience. it's something simple to ask in our daily life, but to someone that doesn't know and to help somebody gain that experience in any way is awesome. >> [speaking in spanish]. >> no matter how tired or cranky or whatever i might feel, when i walk into this place i always walk out feeling great. >> if you feel comfortable using computers and you have

patience, we want you on our team. >> would you show me how to type? >> [speaking in spanish]. >> will you help me learn more? >> mr. president you have a quorum. we have the director of office of citizens complaint. joyce hicks. >> thank you very much and ladies and gentlemen welcome to the may 14, 2014 san francisco police commission meeting. we have an agenda to deal