The Albuquerque Tribune
March 28, 2005
Sign of change
By Mike Tumolillo
The big news on the health front is the signing of the governor’s Insure New Mexico initiative. The legislation is four-fold and is aimed at reducing the number of uninsured people in the state.
The four bills are:
. Small Employer Health Care Coverage Access, which provides options for employers with 50 or fewer workers to buy into the state’s health insurance
program.
. Health Insurance Rates and Alliance Membership, which the governor’s office says will make health insurance more affordable for individuals and small businesses. The measure lowers premium rates offered by carriers through the Health Insurance Alliance.
. Health Coverage for Unmarried Dependents, which allows single people to remain on their parents’ health plan until they turn 25.
. Part-time Employee Insurance Coverage, which requires insurers to offer a plan to part-timers working more than 20 hours a week should their employers choose to extend coverage to them.
Pahl Shipley, a spokesman for the governor, said the bills will help expand access to health insurance to more than 35,000 New Mexicans. The state estimates the number of uninsured to top 414,000.
http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/bu_local/article/0,2565,ALBQ_19838_3656256,00.html
Comment: New Mexico’s Democratic governor, Bill Richardson, has steadfastly
opposed single payer reform, supporting instead incremental approaches to
covering the uninsured. It is likely that his Insure New Mexico initiative, that he just signed into law, will not provide enough coverage to offset the increases in the numbers of uninsured due to failing private coverage.
But let’s assume that his optimistic prediction of 35,000 newly insured will be met without any other decline in coverage. What does he plan to do about the other 91% of the uninsured in his state?
After two decades of incremental policies for reform, the results are in. The numbers of uninsured continue to increase, and the financial security of those who have insurance is under ever greater threat. Let’s get out of the reverse gear of incrementalism and put our reform movement in Drive, or we’ll never get to where we want to go.