At Least One Legal Alternative Exists
San Francisco’s business owners are sending funds to the Healthcare Security Ordinance’s City Option fund to sit unspent. We’ve documented what a broken ordinance the HCSO is, particularly because there is an estimated $850-$900 million in funds collected from SF’s businesses for hourly workers with very low utilization.. The money is earmarked for workers’ individual healthcare costs, but very few are even aware they have health dollars available and thus the fund keeps growing. In January of this year the city supervisors voted to reclaim any funds that are idle for 3 years into the general fund making it essentially one more expensive tax on San Francisco’s employers.
Instead of writing that check to City Option Fund that you’ll never see again and the vast majority of your employees are clearly not benefiting from, an alternative solution came to our attention. RokketMed is a newer San Francisco company with an offering built for the HCSO. Founder Tracy Baldwin recognizes the same operational flaws with the City Option Fund and created an easy-to-use prepaid health debit card to pay for healthcare expenses at the point of purchase. The card can be used for services such as dental care, doctors visits, urgent care visits, mental health care, and over the counter medications at places like Walgreens and CVS. They also have a marketplace where you can find everyday items service workers need close to home or work making it easier to spend their earned funds.
Equally important, RokketMed does not require your employees to have a social security number and takes very little personal information, so undocumented workers can better utilize the service. Undocumented workers account for the large majority of employees who pass on their offered employee healthcare. Also importantly, if the SFSVA proposal to open up HCSO funds to transportation is adopted, your employees’ RokketMed “orange card” could become their Clipper Card or the card attached to their Uber/Lyft/Flywheel account.
The City Option fund is so bloated and underutilized because that money is earmarked for the individual employees’ healthcare with minimal outreach on how to access or use the money. Awareness or a useful how-to campaign would have to come from separate city coffers. Some efforts have been made, but very limited. RokketMed performs regular outreach and promotes locally-owned healthcare options to keep that money in our San Francisco community.
RokketMed and any services like it doesn’t relieve the need to amend or repeal the HCSO, but those efforts are not going to happen soon. In the meantime, in October lots of checks will be written, the City Option fund will continue to bloat and this is an option you can take advantage of now. This may read as a bit of a commercial, but it’s not meant to be. Please let us know if there are other similar services you might be using. Also, it bears noting that the SFSVA has not accepted any donations from RokketMed and has no direct commercial affiliation. We’re just trying to solve problems.
Check it out and contact us with any input.