It's The Thought That Counts

In a "largely symbolic" move The City of Houston has decreed a pay or play health plan for contractors doing business with the city as detailed here in The Houston Comical;

In an effort to encourage more employers to provide health insurance, Mayor Bill White proposed a plan Tuesday that would require about half the city's contractors to offer health benefits to employees or contribute to a fund that would help cover the costs of medical care for the uninsured.

The proposal, expected to be considered by the City Council today, is largely a symbolic move since most city contractors already provide workers with insurance. But it sets an example, White said, that he hopes other public and private employers will follow.

"If enough employers did this, we would create a fund that could be used to make health care more accessible to the residents of Houston and to defray some of those costs that we are currently encountering in our emergency rooms because of the uninsured," he said.

I must give credit to the comical for at least inferring that many contractors will simply;

1. Stop bidding on City contracts and stick with private sector jobs ;
2. Build the cost into their contracts on a cost plus basis;

Yet one would have to be obtuse to miss those points, no?

The good news is Harris County collected $22M from Big tobacco so hopefully the new smoking ban will not inhibit future health care for all in the Bayou City.