Title
To support Senate Bill 103 which would require disclosure of employers who have employees that receive public benefits.
Body
WHEREAS, Columbus/Franklin County has over 130,000 uninsured residents, jeopardizing the health of uninsured and underinsured residents and driving up health care spending in the community; and
WHEREAS, most of the uninsured are working adults who do not receive health insurance through their employment; and
WHEREAS, most area employers, large and small, continue to provide health benefits to their employees, but struggle with rising health care costs that can threaten both employee wage growth and the employer's economic health; and
WHEREAS, in response to rising health care costs, employers have been reducing their health care benefits, often shifting costs both onto workers and to health care providers in the form of uncompensated care; and
WHEREAS, workers and their families are increasingly forced to turn to taxpayer-funded programs like Medicaid to get health care as job-based health coverage declines and employers shift ever-growing health costs onto employees; and
WHEREAS, workers, taxpayers, and other businesses are forced to pick up the $113 billion tab for health care when profitable companies do not pay their fair share, according to a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund; and
WHEREAS, the City of Columbus wants state and local governments to develop policies and programs to ensure that all residents have health coverage that is affordable both to individuals and to taxpayers; and
WHEREAS, in order to develop appropriate public policies, state and local policymakers need to know, by employer, the number of employees and their dependents that receive Medicaid and other public benefits; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That we do hereby support the enactment of Senate Bill 103, in the Ohio General Assembly that would require the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to issue an annual report containing data, by employer, of the numbers of employees and dependents receiving Medicaid, Disability Medical Assistance, or hospital care under the Hospital Care Assurance Program.