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Health Plan Proposal
Gets Board Hearing

A committee of the Board of Supervisors has held the first of several expected hearings on a Taxi Commission proposal for a cab driver health care plan. United Taxicab Workers has been advocating for the plan since the board set the wheels in motion to create it in 2003.
At the Rules Committee hearing, which lasted over a hour, Executive Director Heidi Machen presented the commission’s proposal to committee members Tom Ammiano, Sean Elsbernd and Aaron Peskin. Ammiano sponsored the original legislation committing the city to providing a health plan for drivers.
The recommendations would cover an estimated 4,000 cab drivers at a cost of $11.6 million in the first year. Cab drivers would pay 30 percent of the cost, with cab companies and medallion holders paying 25 percent each and the city contributing 20 percent.
The estimated driver premium would be under $50 a month, with an additional fee tacked on to A-card renewal. A meter increase would help offset the driver share of costs and a $5-a-shift gate increase would more than pay for the company share.
Under the proposal, cab drivers would be included in a health and welfare trust that insures over 100,000 unionized workers. They would have a choice of several plans offered by Kaiser Permanente and the Chinese Community Health Plan.
United Taxicab Workers generally supports the recommendations, but has called for plan improvements and elimination of the A-card fee.
Supervisor Elsbernd expressed concern over the proposed city contribution, noting that San Francisco has enacted a plan to provide health services to all its residents. But the Healthy San Francisco Plan is not health insurance and would not be available outside the city, where a large percentage of cab drivers live.
Yellow Cab manager Jim Gillespie, speaking for the San Francisco Taxi Association, supported the concept of health coverage for cab drivers, but said the association favors bringing them into the city plan.
Carl MacMurdo, speaking for the Medallion Holders Association, proposed a 25-cent-a-ride meter increase, which would produce $4 million a year toward driver health costs. That is about one-third of what the commission’s proposal would provide.