Tuesday, a panel of federal judges ruled that San Francisco’s federal labor law that requests employers to help pay for the city’s universal health care plan was legal.

The Healthy San Francisco plan aims at providing health care for an approximate number of 73,000 uninsured residents, the city’s officials reckoning that the decision the three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has made was a major victory for the program.

The court case draws its core from the issue of whether the law, which was passed two years ago by the Board of Supervisors, violates Erisa, a 1974 federal act that stipulates same standards are to be applied to local, state and federal benefit plans. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry and was enacted in order to protect the interests of employee benefit plan participants.

In December 2007, the San Francisco health care plan was halted by a district judge that stated the law violated the aforementioned federal act.

Nevertheless, Judge William A. Fletcher, alongside Judges Alfred T. Goodwin and Stephen Reinhardt, have recently decided that the legal measure did not conflict with Erisa.

The health plan requires employers with more than 20 employees to pay $1.17 to $1.76/employee per hour for health care. The contribution can come in many forms, including employer-provided insurance or health savings accounts.

Up to this moment, 30,000 San Francisco residents have been reported to have signed up for the program.