The Administration has finally rolled out a discussion draft of its universal health coverage bill, “Health Solutions, ”and it weighs in at 92 pages. It’s chock full of details on insurance reforms and requirements, as well as the composition and function of the proposed health coverage authority. The draft is available at the Governor’s web site under “new initiatives,“ and you can also link to it HERE. The administration is welcoming comments, too before Jan. 3. E-mail rubyann.esquibel@state.nm.us.
It’s still a mystery to me how the Gov. intends to get this one through the legislature, given that he’ll be on the campaign trail and not in Santa Fe to address the skepticism of the minority and key Senators that we can afford this in a slim budget year. Which is a shame. This is as close as we’ve come to real health care reform in over ten years. I spoke about this and the whole process (I’ve been in deep) in a speech I gave to the Public Health Association on Dec. 7, called “So Close but Yet So Far.” It gives a pretty good background (maybe more than you want to know) and you can link to it HERE. Meanwhile, here are a few tidbits:
“First the good news: we are so much closer today—in both New Mexico and the nation to health care reform than we have ever been since the early ‘90s. Health care is now at the top of the domestic agenda and every presidential candidate, whether Democratic or Republican, has a plan to achieve universal—or almost universal coverage. According to Celinda Lake, and other pollsters, 72% of the American public in principle favors providing access to quality affordable health care even if it means raising taxes.
Skyrocketing insurance premiums are the major concern. And the concern will intensify in the next ten years, as premium hikes vastly outstrip wage hikes. The average family premium now is about $12,000 per year, and is will DOUBLE in the next ten years…
The centerpiece of the task force’s activities was a study by Mathematica (a health consulting firm) which had this conclusion: ‘Looking at it five years from now, it will cost only incrementally more to implement a universal health care system for New Mexico than it will cost to do nothing and let the number of uninsured New Mexicans increase every year.”
On Tuesday I presented the Health and Human Services Committee recommendations to the budget makers on the LFC. Earlier in the day they had heard from Human Services Secretary Pam Hyde that Medicaid would need an additional $141 million in general fund rather than the 87 million she had requested in Oct. The thought of grappling with—and especially funding—a complete system redesign—all in a short, 30 day session seemed to throw the chairman, and many of the members over the edge. To say that the reception was frosty—would be an understatement. Nevertheless, we will see plenty of attempts this session to begin the march toward universal coverage. There will be several bills to establish a health care authority—from the Medical Society, the Health Care For All Campaign, the Administration and others. The Health Security Plan’s advocates intend to introduce their bill as does, Dr. J.R. Damron, who has a plan for a Health Insurance Exchange. There also will be bills on insurance reform, electronic records, billing and IT, as well as transparency and cost controls. It will be quite interesting, by the way, to see which of these bills will be declared germane, and thus up for debate in a short session where the agenda is usually limited to budget and revenue items. On Tuesday I presented the Health and Human Services Committee recommendations to the budget makers on the LFC. Earlier in the day they had heard
All in all, the upcoming session will be a health policy wonk’s dream. But the bad news is—with the fiscal forecast becoming gloomier by the day, the resolute opposition of the minority party to almost any change, and relations between the Legislature and the Governor’s office strained by the demands national political campaign this dream may turn into a nightmare of professional protectionism, bureaucratic infighting and paralysis brought on by special interests protecting their own purse.
We are So Close and yet So Far…and remember there are 400,000 New Mexicans caught in the crossfire. People without insurance do not have lobbyists in Santa Fe, so we need your activism to help bring us closer to affordable, quality health care for all New Mexicans.
In conclusion, I recently heard Ron Pollack, Director of Families USA, speak to Con Alma, about health care reform, and he said something that I feel was right on point for where we are today in New Mexico. He said this:
“Too often health care reformers go home when their exact plan, their top choice is not adopted by the task force, the committee or the legislature. But that leaves the status quo in place as the second choice. We need to make a virtue out of our second choices—choices that can transcend partisanship and ideology and move us forward.”
We can’t leave the status quo in New Mexico—not when we have come this far—that’s why I’m asking for your help in finding that second choice—whether it is a health care authority that can move us forward, meaningful insurance reforms, prevention or cost avoidance measures. As difficult as I think this will be, this is our opportunity, and I hope you will join me in seizing it in Santa Fe come January.”
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