Letters: Good food, bad healthcare surcharge

Re “Levy leaves some steamed,� Column, Feb. 19

Although I appreciate the apparent goodwill of Republique’s owners, I’m not on board with the restaurant’s 3% healthcare surcharge.

Those lower-salaried employees very likely have been receiving taxpayer-funded aid. Now the owners want their customers to pay more than they’ve already been paying in taxes.

To me it sounds like another example of a business privatizing profits and socializing losses.

If you can’t make enough to provide insurance to your 80 employees, hire a consultant to see what you’re doing wrong.

Barry Davis

Agoura Hills

Steve Lopez is “happy to kick in an extra 25 cents for breakfast or a few bucks for dinner� to support Republique’s effort to pay for healthcare insurance for its employees. Kudos to him. If he can afford that, he can probably “afford� more.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans face higher insurance premiums due to legislation that promised cost savings. My annual premiums just increased by nearly 25%.

There is this belief among liberals that additional costs are OK as long as one can “afford� it. At what point do they draw the line as to what is no longer affordable?

Restaurant patrons such as Lopez should be proud of their efforts to help Republique’s employees. But the rest of us shouldn’t have this fee shoved down our throats.

Pete Griffith

Arcadia

What has happened to us when people willing to pay $15 for a glass of wine don’t want to pay a little more so that every restaurant employee is able to have health insurance? These people should be happy that the staff handling their food is healthy.

Patricia L. Moore

Los Angeles

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