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Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Guest Blogger: NM Sen. Dede Feldman on Governor's Health Care Initiatives
Now here’s some genuinely good news. Governor Bill Richardson has gotten religion!Governor Richardson Appoints Committee to Study Various Models of Universal Health Care!
After line-item vetoing the money Rep. Danice Picraux and I had inserted in the budget for a cost study of various models of universal health care, the Guv is going for it. He’s appointed a committee and we’ll start work soon.
He’s also going with a key recommendation from the legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee and last year’s Insure New Mexico Task Force. That recommendation is that we expand the eligibility of Medicaid for adults to a decent level (100% of the federal poverty level or about $16,600 for a family of three), to relieve pressure on stressed hospitals who now provide the indigent care, and let the federal government pay three quarters of the bill. Thank You Governor---Hosana, Hosana in the Highest.
Now all we have to do is to get the legislature to fund the expansion to the tune of $62 million. I hope I can count on some of you out there in the blogsphere to help. It will mean the opportunity for health insurance for 42,000 low income New Mexicans, almost all of them working.
Click the link to read the news release out of the Governor’s Office: "Governor Richardson Takes Action to Close Uninsured Gap in New Mexico"
Editor's Note: This is a Guest Blog by NM Senator Dede Feldman and it's cross-posted on her own blog. If you'd like to be a guest blogger on DFNM, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link on the top left-hand side of the main page.
July 26, 2006 at 12:03 PM in Guest Blogger, Healthcare | Permalink
Comments
I'm concerned that expanding Medicaid will only overload hospitals and doctors even more without adding beds or providers. With Medicaid reimbursement so low, many providers are refusing to serve these patients as well. We need to go for either single payor coverage or some combo of public and private that makes sense, like France and other nations have. This piecemeal tinkering is not enough. Nurse staffing is going down not up as patient loads increase. There needs to be big investment in infrastructure and if we leave it to the health care companies competiting for dollars, we'll never get it. They want to spend more on advertising and marketing than RN nursing care.
Posted by: RN | Jul 26, 2006 1:40:09 PM
I share RN's fears. All this adding patients without real change in the overall infrastructure and insurance setup won't do much but overload our system even more than it is already. And how about Lovelace planning to close its hospital and ER on Gibson? Makes it that much harder for people from the E. Mountains to get to an ER. This is a symtom of what is wrong with the system. For profits are bad for everyone.
I want to see Richardson do something bold with health care. There is no excuse with Democrats running both houses of the legislature. Let's see some real action Bill.
Posted by: East Mtn | Jul 27, 2006 8:54:50 AM
