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.
It’s crunch time for a handful of state cabinet secretaries and top aides charged by Gov. Bill Richardson to produce a health care road map for New Mexico.
Several will work over the weekend, and a very few might feel as if they’re reliving nightmarish all-nighters from college, as they put the final touches on a strategic plan Richardson wants on his desk by Thursday.
But even after all the work, the plan – viewed as a guide to help New Mexico get ready for the new federal health care law — will be short on specifics and tall on the hard slogging ahead.
“This is an initial identification of what are the key issues. What are the key impacts?” Human Services Secretary Katie Falls said Thursday of the plan due July 1, the first day of the new fiscal year. The executive leadership team Falls helped lead met Thursday for the final time before next week’s deadline.
A helpful way to think about it is that the executive leadership team was charged with asking big-picture questions — how many lanes should the road be – and not construction questions –what do we do with that hill in the road’s proposed path.
General concepts, and few details
As a result, the group’s discussion tended toward the general Thursday, and was bereft of any hot-button issues making headlines.
There was no debate on health insurance exchanges, a centerpiece of the new health care law. Or of how New Mexico should interpret the term ‘unreasonable.’ The new law gives states the power in 2014 to reject ‘unreasonable’ rate hike requests from health insurers. Some argue New Mexico already has that power.
Even so, a few ideas emerged as likely candidates for inclusion in the strategic plan.
One with better-than-even odds of making it in is the creation of an Office of Health Care Reform. As envisioned Thursday by the leadership team, the agency would coordinate the state’s efforts to change state law and regulations to prepare for 2014, when many provisions in the new law go into effect.
The agency wouldn’t have its own designated staff, but probably should borrow state workers from other agencies on a part-time basis, said Marilyn Hill, deputy cabinet secretary for the state’s Taxation and Revenue Department.
“I don’t think any of us is talking about creating an office and asking for money for it,” said Falls, who acknowledged the state’s precarious financial situation.
Another popular recommendation Thursday was to formalize the leadership team as a body that would oversee the proposed office. Quickly incorporated was a suggestion to add legislative representatives.
A similar working group created by the Legislature is currently meeting and plans to study issues in the months leading up to the 2011 legislative session.
“I would suggest you would have some of us on (the team) … to know why decisions were made,” state Rep. Danice Picraux, D-Albuquerque, told the group Thursday, referring to her fellow lawmakers. “So we’re knowledgeable when we have to defend it.”
Coming debates and decisions
Even if the strategic plan doesn’t deal in specifics, it points to the coming discussions and decisions that must be held and made.
There might not have been any recommendations on what kind of health insurance exchange the state should start constructing.
But that debate is coming. Massachusetts’ former Medicaid director told the executive leadership team earlier this month that the topic should be in the back of their minds.
Should it be a weak exchange — his words – that is merely a centralized area for insurance plans and consumers to come together? Or should it be a strong exchange — one that actively wields its potential bulk purchasing power to drive reform?
Then there are the thousands of details – big and small — to work out.
Already Falls’ agency is trying to predict how many New Mexicans will enter Medicaid, the government’s low-income health insurance program. Medicaid eligibility rules change in 2014, making anyone earning up to 133 percent over the federal poverty level eligible. Currently, adults with children who earn 85 percent of the federal poverty level qualify in New Mexico.
Another unknown is how many small employers might take advantage of tax credits that will help them purchase health insurance for their workers. The most recent estimate is that more than 25,000 New Mexico businesses are eligible.
Also elusive is a projected number of New Mexicans who will enter the private insurance market. New Mexico has one of the largest uninsured rates in the nation, second only to Texas.
And how prepared is New Mexico’s community of medical providers? That question was raised during last month’s executive team meeting.
In other words, the real work has only just begun.
