1099 Senate Repeal/ Made in California legislation/ Insure the Uninsured Project

The Senate voted 81 to 17 to repeal the 1099 requirement put forth in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The bill was introduced by Senator Debbie Stubenow [D-Mich] and is paid for by requiring the Office of Management and Budget to find funding in unspent but appropriated funds.

It now goes to the House where another bill by Congressman Dan Lungren [HR 4] would also repeal the requirement. This bill however does not have any funding provisions.

I would expect that the Stubenow bill will prevail.

Small Business California and the National Small Business Association has fought hard for this repeal and will continue to do so in the House.

I received an email from Djibril in state Senator Corbett’s Office regarding legislation being introduced by the Senator to establish a voluntary program allowing companies to seek a Made In California label. See below. Do you support this? What are your ideas on how this should be drafted.

It should be noted that past efforts to do this have been opposed by the state Chamber and I would expect they will also oppose this.

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Hello Scott,

The idea would be to establish a voluntary program allowing companies to seek a “Made in California” label. The state of California would sanction this label and promote as part of its ongoing effort to promote to the Golden State.

As we drafting this legislation, two example came to mind, “Made in USA” and the “California Grown” program. The “Made in USA” definition call for all or virtually all significant parts” to be manufactured in the United States of America. The California Grown programs on the other had calls for 85% to have been grown in California.

I would be interested in knowing what of these model be better suited for California small businesses to participate. Our goal is to focus on the assembly in California not so much on the source of the parts.

This effort would create a public/private partnership, with funding from the participating companies and the State of California. Those resources would be used to create and implement a multifaceted marketing campaign that combines advertising and public outreach, promotions and web pages, point of sale activities and public events.

The marketing component of this effort has a simple objective: to increase demand for and sales of local products and companies . It would enable consumers to make choices and that choosing California made products is good for them, for the state’s economy and for the future of California.

Please let me know your thoughts?

Djibril V. Diop
Senior Legislative Aide
Office of the Senate Majority Leader, Ellen Corbett

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I was recently appointed to the Board of the Insure the Uninsured Project. This is a very influential group on health policy in California. The Executive Director is Lucien Wulsin who I have worked with for close to 20 years. Lucian has been a great friend of small business and was responsible ,while working for Assemblyman Burt Margolan, for the passage of AB 1672 .

AB1672 created the Health Insurance Program of California which was a purchasing pool for small business. The bill also provided for small businesses with between 2 and 50 employees the ability to purchase health insurance regardless of preexisting conditions for them and their employees. The companies are only allowed to surcharge those policies 10% .

Small Business California is fighting hard to have Lucian appointed to the state insurance Exchange. He is being considered by the Speaker.

For information about Insure the Uninsured Project go to www.itup.org. It is a wealth of information about what is going on in the health arena.



Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188