The Legislature finds as follows:
(a)Public employers, including the state and the University of California, are among the largest employers in the state, offering medical and other health care benefits to hundreds of thousands of employees and their family members. Employers typically contribute all or part of the premium cost for employees and their dependent family members; employees may also contribute part of their pay to cover the premium cost.
(b)Many of California’s large employers, including the state, counties, municipalities, and the University of California, operate hospitals, medical clinics, and other health care delivery systems. To protect public health, staff at these medical
facilities should have uninterrupted access to health care services.
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The Legislature finds as follows:
(a)
Public employers, including the state and the University of California, are among the largest employers in the state, offering medical and other health care benefits to hundreds of thousands of employees and their family members. Employers typically contribute all or part of the premium cost for employees and their dependent family members; employees may also contribute part of their pay to cover the premium cost.
(b)
Many of California’s large employers, including the state, counties, municipalities, and the University of California, operate hospitals, medical clinics, and other health care delivery systems. To protect public health, staff at these medical
facilities should have uninterrupted access to health care services.
(c)
Employers have previously threatened to or actually suspended their health care insurance contributions for striking employees, which upends workers’ and their family members’ access to health services.
(d)
Even a temporary lapse of health insurance coverage can have ripple effects on working families, their surrounding communities, and public health.
(e)
Working people and their family members who are denied access to their doctors, prescriptions, and necessary treatment during a strike may go without care, enroll in a publicly financed safety net plan, or seek uncompensated care, typically from public health care providers.
(f)
The COVID-19 pandemic has strained California’s
public health safety net programs, and future federal funding for the Medi-Cal program is in jeopardy.
(g)
It is a matter of statewide concern that access to health and other medical care continue and that employers not suspend coverage or their contributions towards premiums for workers or their dependent family members during a strike.
(h)
It is also a matter of statewide concern that the temporary loss of coverage during a strike harms not only the striking worker, but also harms dependent family members and the surrounding community, and further strains the already stretched public social safety net on which so many people depend.
(i)
Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to prohibit the activities referenced in this chapter.