Democracy for New Mexico

Network of Spiritual Progressives Hosts Health Care Discussion

From the Albuquerque Network of Spiritual Progressives: Steve Moffat, president of Health Action New Mexico, is presenting descriptions of the health care models studied by Mathematica for the NM health care reform effort. The event is scheduled for Sunday, September 9, from 1:00 to 2:30 PM in the Social Hall of the First Unitarian Church, 3701 Carlisle, with discussion afterwards. This is a program of "Health Care for All", a covenant action group of the Network of Spiritual Progressives.

Vote: NM Program Finalist for Innovative Healthcare Solutions Award

From Project ECHO:
The New Mexico-based 'Project ECHO' has just named one of the top 10 finalists in a global online competition called "Disruptive Innovations in Health and Healthcare: Solutions People Want." Founded in 2003 by UNM professors Sanjeev Arora (MD) and Joseph Scaletti (PhD) Project ECHO has been been providing world class health care for hepatitis C patients in remote rural areas and correctional facilities all over New Mexico (using a new twist on the telemedicine idea).

"Project ECHO: Knowledge Networks for the Treatment of Complex Diseases in Remote, Rural, Underserved Communities" was selected from over 300 proposals in 27 different countries) and, if they win, they plan to expand to treat additional diseases in New Mexico and to help other people start up new clinics in other areas of the US and the developing world.

Since the subtitle of the competition is "Solutions People Want," the last stage of the competition is an online collaborative public discussion and vote. On August 29th, the top 3 vote-getters will be named as the winners.

If you'd like to support a New Mexico-based project whose goal is to improve the health and healthcare of all New Mexicans (and the rest of the world), please consider consider casting your vote .

In addition to Project ECHO, you'll find several other really cool proposals on the changemakers site that are deserving of your votes (you get to vote for a total of three projects)! Thanks for helping us spread the word about this local project poised to have a global impact!

"Project ECHO: Knowledge Networks for the Treatment of Complex Diseases in Remote, Rural, Underserved Communities"
https://changemakers.net/en-us/node/1036

Editor's Note: It takes a bit of effort to vote because you have to register and then wait a minute to get an email confirming your registration before you vote, but I think it's worth it, don't you?

Public Meetings This Week: Speak Up On NM Health Care Reform

From the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign:
Speak Up in Your Community! Public forums (sponsored by Health Care for All, with other organizations) are being held around the state to discuss the results of the Mathematica study and the direction of health care reform in New Mexico.

Below are the forums taking place in the next two weeks.

• Taos County, Wednesday, August 22 (Taos Convention Center, Rio Grande Hall, 120 Civic Plaza Drive, Taos), 6:00-8:00 PM
• Sandoval County, Thursday, August 23 (Meadowlark Senior Center, 4330 Meadowlark Lane, Rio Rancho), 7:00- 8:30 PM
• San Miguel County, Tuesday, August 28 (Luna Community College, 366 Luna Drive, Las Vegas), 4:00-6:00 PM

September forums are currently scheduled for Carlsbad, Bayard, Santa Fe, Roswell, and Los Alamos. We'll keep you posted.

Here's Your Chance to Influence the Interim Legislative Committee: The Interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee is also holding meetings this week. The meetings focus on the study and the path New Mexico should follow in regard to health care reform. Presentations on the results of the Mathematica study will be made on Wednesday, August 22, and Thursday, August 23. You can check out the agenda for the Zuni and Gallup meetings here.

• Zuni: The Interim Health and Human Services Committee will meet at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, August 22, in Zuni at the UNM Gallup/Zuni Campus, Room 102. Public comment is scheduled for 5:20 PM.
• Gallup: The committee will meet on Thursday and Friday, August 23 and 24, in Gallup at UNM Gallup, Gurley Hall, Room 205/207. Thursday's meeting begins at 10:30 AM, with public comment scheduled for 5:15 PM. Friday's meeting begins at 9:00 AM.

September interim committee meetings are tentatively scheduled for Hobbs and Roswell. We'll let you know more when the committee schedule is firm.

Please Make a Point of Attending the Forums and Interim Committee Meetings in Your Area: It is very important that those of you who live in these communities attend and make the forum organizers and the interim committee members aware of your support for the Health Security Act.

Here are some possible talking points.

• The Mathematica study clearly indicates that the Health Security Act is the only proposal that reduces health care costs and covers everyone. Only the Health Security Act costs less than the current system. It is the only model that saves money. Even after five years of operation, the other two models still cost more than the current system.
• Taxpayer dollars have been spent on a study, which is being ignored.
• This is the second time that a New Mexico study has concluded that including all or most New Mexicans in one health risk pool will save hundreds of millions of dollars. (The first was in 1994.)
• Solutions that rely on the private insurance system are not acceptable.
• The Health Security Act has had input from thousands of New Mexicans over the years. The Act is supported by 128 organizations and 26 counties and cities. It is the only proposal with public support.
• It is time to pass the Health Security Act (explain why you support it).

If you want us to send you a copy of the Mathematica study's results, contact Josette (see below). Let us know what happens at the meetings you are able to attend. Your feedback is always important to us.

Contacting the Governor: Governor Richardson has publicly stated that he does not like any of the models that were studied by his Health Coverage for New Mexicans Committee and that he is committed to a system where private insurers play a dominant role. Despite the study's conclusion that the Health Security Act would save New Mexico hundreds of millions of dollars, the Act does not have the Governor's support.

Please contact Governor Richardson and ask him to support the Health Security Act. His office can be reached at 505-476-2200. If you prefer to write him a letter, his mailing address is Office of the Governor, 490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Room 400, Santa Fe, NM 87501. You can also email him through his website.

If you have any questions, contact Josette at 505-771-8763 or jhaddad@cableone.net.

Tonight On KUNM's Espejos de Aztlan: Topahkal Health Collective

From Javier Benavidez:
Check out KUNM 89.9FM tonight, Monday, August 20th, at 8:00 PM for a half-hour live interview with Andru Ziwasimon, MD, of the Topahkal Health Collaborative. Topahkal is an independent clinic interweaving traditional/indigenous medicines with conventional family practice medicine. They serve over 5,000 uninsured individuals and families annually and are located in the heart of the South Valley in Albuquerque, NM.

Next Sunday, August 26th, from 6 PM to 10 PM, Topahkal will host a celebration and fund-raiser at the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center (on the corner of Silver and Harvard in the university area). Music will be provided by Nuevo Mexico Presente, La Junta and Le Chat Lunatique. Patients, their families, and supporters are invited to join in the homemade food, silent art auction, dancing and fun. For more information, please contact Cecilia at the Peace and Justice Center at (505) 268-9557.

Espejos de Aztlan has been on-air since 1979 and is part of the Raices Collective which conducts programming on news, culture and music from a Latino perspective on KUNM 89.9FM. For more information or to submit input about Espejos de Aztlan, please visit the "Raices" link at https://kunm.org/culture/.

Editor's Note: For more information on the work of Topahkal Health Collaborative, click:

• Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth
• Healthy Choices; The Topahkal Health Collaborative Blends Traditional and Alternative Methods
• Albuquerque Tribune Event Item

Guest Blog: Take the Greed Out of Politics

This is a guest blog by Judith Binder of Skills for Democracy, Albuquerque:
Universal Health Care - Since the early 1990s, Uwe E. Reinhardt, Ph.D. Economist from Princeton University, has maintained that "greed" must be taken out of politics if we are to have appropriate health care in this country. The pharmaceutical industry, hospitals for profit, insurance companies, and corruptible politicians should not be allowed to control the legislation.

Clean Elections will create a healthy nation—an economically stable nation.

Reinhardt was in Albuquerque in 1992 or 1993 keynoting a health care forum. You can find his views at RSNA News (PDF), page 10.

Editor's Note: This is a guest blog by Judith Binder. Guest blogs provide our readers with an opportunity to express their views on issues of interest, and don't necessarily express our views. If you'd like to submit a post for consideration as a guest blog, contact me by clicking on the Email Me link at the upper left-hand corner of the page.

More Health Care Community Forums Scheduled

More health care community forums, sponsored by the Health Care for All campaign and other groups. Attend and express your views on universal health care in New Mexico:

Farmington: Aug. 16, 9-11am and 6-8pm (location to be determined). Call the Community Health Care Fund, 505-564-3628.

Taos: Aug. 22, 6-8pm (location to be determined). Call the Taos Co. Health Council, 505-776-8705.

Rio Rancho: Aug. 23, 7-8:30pm at the Meadowlark Senior Center, 4330 Meadowlark Lane. Call the Sandoval Co. Community Health Alliance, 505-771-7941.

Las Vegas: Aug. 28, 4-6pm at Luna Community College, 366 Luna Dr. Call the San Miguel Co. Health Council, 505-454-1401

Carlsbad: Sept. 10, 5:30-7:30pm, at NMSU-Carlsbad, Room 101, 1500 University Dr. Call the Eddy Co. Community Health Council, 505-887-9511.

Bayard: Sept. 11, 6-8pm at the Bayard Community Center, 290 Hurley Ave. Call the NMSW NM Council of Governments, 505-388-1509.

Santa Fe: Sept. 18, 10am-12pm at St John’s Methodist, 1200 Old Pecos Trail (pending) and 5:30-7:30pm at Santa Fe County Chambers, 102 Grant St. (confirmed). Call the Santa Fe Co. Health and Human Services Dept., 505-992-9840.

Roswell: Sept. 20, 2-4pm at ENMU-Roswell, Occupational Tech. Center Bldg., Room 124. Call Barbara Thompson, 505-623-61723.

Los Alamos: Sept. 20, 7-9pm at Fuller Lodge, 2132 Central Ave. Call the League of Women Voters, 505-662-5900.

Gallup: Oct. 4 (time and location to be determined). Call the McKinley Community Health Alliance, 505-863-5107.

Citizens Restless About Real Health Care Reform

Jerry Ortiz y Pino has an excellent column in last week's alibi about the recent community forum in Albuquerque on NM health care reform sponsored by Health Care for All -- and about Gov. Bill Richardson's stance on reform. I highly recommend you read the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:

... the event did have an emotional highlight. It came when a speaker cautioned those in attendance that the prospects for true reform of our health care system were dimmed significantly by a pronouncement from Gov. Richardson that he would never approve any measure that didn’t include a role for private insurance. The chorus of boos, hisses and angry shouts that greeted this statement was immediate and deafening.

Speculation afterward on why Richardson would have made such an unpopular public statement at a point in the process far, far before he needed to take any position on it at all (to say nothing about it also being in the midst of an uphill campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination) ranged from the cynical to the outright libelous.

Clearly, it is a stance he might want to reconsider, as no other issue likely to come up in the campaign would be as effective in propelling him up into the top tier of racehorses as would an enthusiastic endorsement of single-payer health care.

... But our governor is quoted by his health care advisor, Michelle Welby, as believing that the 80 percent of New Mexicans who have health coverage are “happy with the current system,” so he won't likely want to end the blood leech role played in our current health financing system by our legion of private insurers.

That is, unless he begins to listen to the thousands who have coverage but who are desperately unhappy with it--citizens like Pam Parker, a businesswoman in Taos, who tearfully detailed for a Legislative Committee last week how her eight-year struggle with breast cancer has left her family financially devastated because her insurer raises the premiums and deductibles annually so that she now pays $1,500 a month … for a policy with a $5,000 deductible. She doesn’t dare switch as her health history makes her essentially uninsurable by any company other than the one she has now.

... The War over Health Care will soon be bigger news than the War in Iraq. Gov. Richardson needs to switch sides. [emphasis mine]

I couldn't agree more.

Make Your Views Known
Right now, Gov. Richardson's presidential campaign website is soliciting questions from the public in a sort of continuation of the recent CNN-YouTube Dem presidential forum. Click here to submit a comment or question about why he has said he won't support a health care reform plan that doesn't preserve a strong role for insurers. If we want an affordable universal health care plan here and nationally, we need to be relentless in pushing for a single-payer type plan (like the NM Health Security Act) that removes the number one cause of rising health care costs -- the for-profit brokers and insurers.

The NM Legislature will take up health care reform at the 30-day session in January, and the Interim Health and Human Services committee is meeting now in various parts of the state to discuss the issue. Contact members of the committee and your legislators and let them know where you stand.

Sign up here with What If You Knew, to stay current on what's happening at the grassroots level to advocate for an effective universal care plan. Join the Health Action NM alert list to get news on Health Care for All New Mexicans activities.

Click here to get the facts on why single-payer universal coverage is the only effective way to cover everyone while keeping costs down -- in a detailed article by none other than noted economist and New York Times journalist Paul Krugman.

Health Care Reform Community Forums
Health Care for All has held two recent, heavily attended health care town halls in Albuquerque and Las Cruces. Such community forums on health care reform in NM will be held in many other parts of the state. In August, town halls are scheduled for Farmington, Taos and Las Vegas, NM, with more on the way. Click here for Health Care for All's calendar of events for more info, and pledge to attend and express yourself at a forum in your area.

TONIGHT on Espejos: Workers' Rights at UNM Hospital

From Javier Benavidez:
Check out KUNM 89.9FM radio tonight, Monday July 30th, at 8:00 PM for a half-hour live interview with Eleanor Chavez, Director of District 1199 of the NM National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees. The Union has been fighting to negotiate a living wage for the University of New Mexico Hospital's 1200 support staff, which includes housekeepers, nursing assistants, dietary workers, clerical, medical assistants, etc. The Union also represents licensed and technical workers. In all, District 1199NM represents 2500 workers at UNMH.

Ironically, many support staff at the hospital earn so little that they themselves are forced to apply for state medicaid benefits. The Union is organizing a picket in front of the hospital on the morning of Friday, August 3rd, at 6:30 AM, urging UNMH to negotiate in good faith and to end conditions that organizers say have included economic oppression and racism against the affected workers.

Espejos de Aztlan has been on-air since 1979 and is part of the Raices Colectiva which conducts programming on news, culture and music from a Latino perspective on KUNM 89.9. For more information or to submit input about the Espejos de Aztlan, please visit the "Raices" link at https://kunm.org/culture.

Sunday Brunch at Scalo to Benefit Health Clinics

From Peacecraft in Albuquerque:
Global Health Partnerships invites you to a Sunday Brunch Benefit at Scalo in Nob Hill to promote health care clinics in Africa and Guatemala! Learn more from Dr. Angelo Tomedi about Global Health Partnerships, an Albuquerque non-profit dedicated to educating and equipping health care workers in villages around the world.

On August 5 from 11:30 AM until 2 PM, this exquisite gourmet event will feature the specialties of Scalo’s guest chef as well as select vegetarian options. Dining is limited to the first 100 participants- call now to reserve your tickets, available for $45 each! Tickets are available at Peacecraft, 3215 Central NE, or by calling 255-5229.

Peacecraft; 3215 Central Ave NE; Albuquerque, NM 87106; 505-255-5229; www.peacecraft.org.

Sign On to Support NM Health Security Act

From Terry Riley of What If You Knew-NM:
Recently there have been many posts here regarding health care coverage/insurance. The NM state legislature deferred action during the last legislative session on the NM Health Security Act because they had commissioned a study of three health care finance reform models. The study has been released and the findings are that the Health Security Act is the least expensive plan, the Health Security Act does not "miss" certain groups of individuals(1), and the Health Security Act will not require a tax increase.

The Governor's Health Coverage Committee took the typical politicians' response and is indicating that rather than to take the recommendation of the $320,000 Mathematica Study they will put together some conglomeration of the three proposed plans to "solve" our health care crisis. Governor Bill Richardson has stated that he will support no plan that does not include health insurance companies. How do we solve the problem when we lock the fox inside the hen house?

I would like to ask anybody and everybody who can to please go to my web site which is:  www.whatifyouknew-nm.com.

There you can get tremendous details regarding the three plans, you can read the Health Security Act as it was presented to the Legislature this last session, the Mathematica Study, several supporting studies, etc.  You can also join with me to bring the Health Security Act to New Mexico in the 2008 Legislative Session.

Knowing that there is a problem does not help anybody.  Joining an organization that is working to solve the problem can increase the chances that the problem will be solved!

Terry Riley

(1) People who are homeless due to domestic abuse are not covered by either the Health Choices plan, the Health Coverage Plan or under our current coverages.