New Mexico State Senator Dede Feldman's Blog

Feldman to Healthcare Rally: The Work Goes On, the Cause Endures, the Hope Still Lives, and Teddy Kennedy's Dream WILL become a Reality

Here's my speech to the Organizing for American Health Care Rally Thursday night. Thanks to Democracy for New Mexico for posting it and taking photos.

"The Work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die."

            That’s what Ted Kennedy said upon giving up his quest for the presidency decades ago. 

            But as we gather here tonight, Ted Kennedy’s biggest dream—health care reform—is more than just a dream.  It is a reality in the making.   We are within sight of Kennedy’s goal-- closer than we have ever been in half a century. 

            It is up to us to take the last lap, to take up Kennedy’s passion for justice, because that’s what health care reform is all about--justice, the fundamental right of every American to have equal access to quality, affordable health care-- no matter what his or her economic, geographic or health status. 

            Do you think we can?

            YES WE CAN

Yes we CAN break the gridlock, and yes we CAN overcome the  fears and misinformation that are being spread in senior citizen centers and town halls. 

We can do this because people’s own personal experience with the difficulties in affording and getting health care show them that the status quo is unsustainable.  And—with a little help from you, and Organizing for America—their own experiences, as individuals, as small businesses, and health care providers, will ultimately trump the current series of lies that can be exposed,  with a little reality check from us.

Because healthcare reform is not about government rationing.  It is about stopping insurance company rationing.  It’s about the 18,000 deaths a year that result from lack of coverage. It’s about stopping suffering of people with chronic conditions who put off treatment because they can’t afford coverage, they lose their job or get their policy rescinded because it costs too much.    That kind of rationing goes on every day in New Mexico.  And try as we might in the New Mexico legislature, that kind of rationing is UNACCOUNTABLE.

But YES we can make it accountable.  The current proposals all call for an END to insurance discrimination against pre-existing conditions, an END to lifetime limits, an End to the recission of policies for people who get too sick and an END to medical underwriting that bases premiums on gender and health status. 

 And to really make insurance companies accountable, and bring costs down, we need a strong public option that will give people who have no insurance or want to switch jobs, or policies…  a CHOICE.   That choice of a publicly sponsored plan that has been so misconstrued as creeping socialism already exists in many states who have state plans of one kind or another.  In New Mexico, we offer the State Coverage Insurance Plan, a public/private that we as a state constructed to address our huge problem of working people without insurance. 

But lets be straight with the public, since there are many who have used the public option as a bogey man to scare folks who like their own insurance fine… a public option is not a single payer system.  It is not Medicare for All, as much as some of us might like that. It is an insurance product, one among many that will be offered under an insurance exchange or gateway system that will impose some consistency and sense into the labyrinth of policies which now create unnecessary expense.  And it will keep costs down, by competing with existing companies. That used to be called the American way.

And here’s another REALITY CHECK, for those who say this reform is too expensive, too costly in these tough economic times.  Yes, the current estimate for the Senate bill is $900 billion over ten years.   That sounds tremendous, and it is.  It is $90 billion each year.  But what they don’t tell you—finally Sen. Bingaman told us the other day at the New Mexico First Town Hall—is that in two years, if we do nothing the cost will be $320 billion a year.  So the cost of doing nothing is almost four times more expensive than health care reform. 

That little reality check doesn’t even get into the core of President Obama’s commitment to reform as the ONLY way that Americans are going to remain competitive and restrain the jump in health care costs which will increase future deficits and eat OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN all for lunch. 

 But let me ask you something.

 Who are these people who have suddenly discovered fiscal conservatism?  Where have they been for the past decade as health care costs skyrocketed at 3x wages and caused thousands of bankrupsies across the country?  Where have they been as thousands of small businesses in New Mexico and elsewhere dropped coverage for their employees, or reduced benefits, increased premiums & co-pays because they just couldn’t afford it?

            I”ll tell you where they’ve been they been.  Every day, every week, every month, every year, they have spending billion of dollars on the war in Iraq.  Since 2003  $677 billion of our tax dollars have gone out the door—in spite of Sen. Kennedy’s opposition—to finance this ill-fated war.  If we had used that money for health care, we’d be three quarters of the way there.

            When I became a New Mexico Senator in 1997 I pledged that I would cultivate in myself--and in others-- what William Sloan Coffin once called  “A Passion for the Possible. “ Today I feel that passion more intensely than ever.  I hope you feel it too.  Because the possible is within our grasp.

            So, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and, with your help, the dream WILL become a reality.

            THANK YOU

To get involved, or for more information about healthcare reform, email me at [email protected]

           

           

           

 

A Public Vote on the Public Option at Sen. Bingaman's Town Hall - A Re-Post

Reposted  from Democracy for New Mexico with gracious permission from post author, Dr. Steven Kanig, who has lived in Albuquerque since 1976 and practiced nephrology for 25 years. He's currently an elected delegate of the New Mexico Medical Society to the American Medical Association and is helping New Mexico with a project to develop a statewide health information exchange.

Organ Donor Website Now Up and Running at www.nmdonor.com

“Sign up to be an organ donor and give the gift of life” implored North Valley resident (and Dede constituent!) Manuelita Jaramillo (center) at the unveiling of the New New Mexico Organ and Tissue Donor Registry earlier this week.

She should know. Manuelita received a double lung transplant a few years ago.  She and her husband Tony (left) had to wait.  But only 10 days, a small miracle.

The new online registry will help people like Manuelita by making it easier for New Mexicans to donate their organs by simply signing up at www.nmdonor.com . The registry will expand the number of people who can actually register New Mexicans were previously limited to registering only when they got their drivers’ license. 

The registry allows donors to specify which organs and tissues they wish to donate. Medical personnel will be able to quickly reference the registry when a transplant is needed. That may mean the difference between life and death to the 650 New Mexicans who await a new organ every day. 

New Mexico already has a strong track record with organ donation and I am happy to have played a small role in this, with several bills in the legislature that encourage donation. We were one of the first states to add donor designation to the driver’s license and we are 6^th in the nation for number of donors registered. About 50% of New Mexicans have agreed to donate their organs.  Now, with the new registry even more lives can be saved. One organ donor can save eight people and one tissue donor can save up to 50!

To register for organ and/or tissue donation please visit www.nmdonor.com or www.nmdonor.org and click on “sign me up.”

I’ve already done it.

Senator Feldman links to the article 'N.M. health reform efforts uncertain'

Here's a link to an article on New Mexico health care reform which appeared yesterday in the Santa Fe New Mexican - Santa Fe New Mexican article . And here's a quote from the article:

' "I think you'll find we're focusing more on quality of health care and the work force rather than expanding insurance programs because we just don't have the money," said Feldman, a member of the White House Working Group of State Legislators for Health Care Reform.'

Special Session Slated for October 2009

 
Sen. Feldman was interviewed by Channel 13 Friday  about the budget shortfall and special session

The second week in August brought official news that the state is now about $300 million in the hole for last year's budget and will fall short $400 million for next year.  This in spite of our cost-cutting efforts from the Jan. session and the stimulus package from the Feds, which is coming in steadily, but slowly. We've already given teachers and state employees a de facto pay cut and rolled back any unspent money that was to be used for capital outlay projects  (roads, schools & other bricks and mortar projects). Without raising "sin taxes" on soft drinks, alcohol and tobacco or rolling back tax breaks given to higher income residents (which the Governor and legislative leadership say is off the table), there's nowhere to go but further cuts in education or health care.

Cement Facility's Permit Would Allow 1123 Truck Trips Each Day !

 
Coming Your Way?  1123 trips from these trucks each day?

Round 2 of the public hearings for Grupo Cementos de Chicahuahua's expansion to a 24-hour-a-day operation will kick off Wednesday evening August  5 at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center at 6 p.m. I've had a little help reviewing the permit application and now realize that, if the permit was granted, it would allow the on-site equipment to process 1170 tons of cement/hr. That could allow 1123 truck trips each day, if each truck had a 25-ton capacity.   The company has said that, given current market conditions, they probably wouldn't be doing this, but who knows what will happen a few years from now.