I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress Wednesday night on health care reform.
Shortly after President Obama finished his major health care reform address to a rare joint session of Congress, U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich sounded an optimistic note in an interview with the Independent.
Heinrich, a first-term Albuquerque Democrat, underscored Obama’s call for more choice and competition among insurance options – including a public option – but also described his own approach as more pragmatic than idealogical.
What follows are Heinrich’s answers to NMI’s questions:
NMI: What was your overall reaction to President Obama’s speech?
MH: I thought he was phenomenally articulate. In years to come, if we get this done, people are going to look back to tonight as a tipping point in health care reform… One of the most important things he said is that this is not going to be easy.
At the onset of the speech, President Obama cast his plan as a middle-ground approach, not left or right. Do you agree with that approach?
I think so. The way he laid it out tonight stays true to one of my fundamental principles on this, and that’s choice… If you don’t have health care or you want a public option, you should also have that choice.
U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich
Right now, do you think there’s enough choice and competition among insurers in the Albuquerque metro area?
My guess is that if you look at the Albuquerque area, that you wouldn’t have an enormous number of providers… I can think of most of them off the top of my head… In some ways, the health care exchange and the public option, really serve to nationalize competition in a way that will create savings in markets where relatively few people take advantage of the public option.
Did you ever favor what’s often considered the more progressive approach – a single-payer plan?
I think I’ve always been fairly pragmatic. I can certainly understand the logic of the people who say a single payer plan can bring about a lot of administrative savings… [But] it’s too hard to do that and make real progress. I think that’s a recipe for not getting the real reform that we need.
Are you open to medical malpractice reform as part of health care reform legislation?
I think what [the president] said about defensive medicine is something we can fix in this legislation. I just think we need to do it in a way that’s consistent with the 6th amendment to the constitution. I think you can avoid frivolous lawsuits without unfairly hurting those people who’ve had a real incident of malpractice… I also do think that consumers have the right under the constitution to have some redress… I think that the Republican approach to malpractice reform tends to be more driven by ideology.
What did you make of the outburst by U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who shouted ‘You lie!” after the president said firmly that health care reform would not extend coverage to illegal immigrants?
I was utterly surprised by that outburst. I don’t think it has any place in the chamber. It was really an anomaly of the evening which was really characterized by both sides of the aisle behaving very well.
