CA Dem Cut Employee Health Care Benefits as Real Estate Executive

Rep. Harley Rouda (D., Calif.), who has called health care "a right for every American" amid a tight reelection bid, cut health care benefits for employees of his real estate company in 2013, a former staff member told the Washington Free Beacon.

Rouda took control of his late father's real estate agency, HER Realtors, in October 2012. Months later, the California Democrat rescinded health care coverage for workers at the agency, according to the longtime former employee.

"We received emails stating that the company was doing away with health insurance—that the expense was becoming too great," the former employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Free Beacon. "Most employees were shocked and disappointed. There was a lot of angst." The source also noted that while the insurance cuts were made "across the board" at HER Realtors, Rouda and other top executives at the agency's parent company—investment firm Trident Holdings—"were still on insurance."

Rouda has since placed health care at the center of his campaign against Republican Orange County supervisor Michelle Steel. Rouda's campaign site calls health care coverage "a right for every American" and stresses the need to "improve and expand health care coverage—not dismantle it." Rouda also told the Los Angeles Times that he was "running to protect health care coverage" in his 2018 campaign against former GOP congressman Dana Rohrabacher. Rouda's former employee called the Democrat's stance on health care "absurd."

"I think it's absurd that somebody would go out and say that, but when they had a company and had the opportunity to offer health insurance to their employees, they sure didn't do it," the worker said.

Documents confirm that the firm does not provide health insurance benefits to its employees. A 2019 internal notice obtained by the Free Beacon notes that HER Realtors "won't offer health coverage." In addition, a 2017 posting on the recruiting site Glassdoor says that the agency offers "no medical benefits currently."