S.E.C. Backs Health Care Balloting

WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission, shifting its position, has told companies they must allow shareholders to vote on a proposal for universal health insurance coverage.

Shareholders, including religious groups and labor unions, have offered the proposal in an effort to draw the nation’s largest corporations deeper into a debate over the future of health care, fast emerging as one of the most important issue in domestic policy.

The S.E.C. has told Boeing, General Motors, United Technologies, Wendy’s International and Xcel Energy over the last several months that they may not omit the health care proposal from their proxy materials.

This came as a surprise to many executives, who said the agency had allowed companies to exclude similar proposals in the past.

The truth is that a single payer system would lift a huge health care burden from our largest corporations, but our corporate leadersheep is to greedy to see that.