The first group of participants must earn less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level.
The program is slated to expand in September, opening to low-income patients who are already seen by the public health department or at other city-supported nonprofit community clinics. In January, the city plans to open it up to everybody who lives in San Francisco, is uninsured and doesn't qualify for other government health care programs, such as Medi-Cal. Only adults qualify because children are covered under a separate San Francisco program.
So have the city's elected leaders, who in a rare display of unanimity agreed last summer to begin providing health care to all San Franciscans. At a time when the broken state of the health care system is at center stage -- in the race for president in 2008 and at movie theaters where Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko" is filling a lot of seats -- San Francisco is the first city in the country to try to tackle the problem itself.
Healthy San Francisco is estimated to cost $200 million a year and will be paid for through a mix of public funds, participants' premiums and co-payments and employer contributions.
The city is mandating that employers who don't currently offer health insurance to their employees contribute to Healthy San Francisco starting Jan. 1. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association has sued to block this component of the program, saying small business owners simply cannot afford it. Both sides are due in federal court Aug. 31.
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