By Phred Dvorak
Wall Street Journal

An innovative San Francisco health-care law is prompting some businesses to raise prices and curtail hiring. But it also is showing early signs of doing what it was intended to do: push employers to defray medical costs for more workers. San Francisco's law aims to provide affordable health care to the city's estimated 73,000 uninsured residents, roughly half of whom work. It requires businesses with 20 or more employees to spend a minimum amount toward their health care, either by providing insurance, reimbursing medical expenses or contributing to a municipal health-services program. The first payments by big companies to the city's program were due last week. Read more »