health care

Budget crisis requires health care reform, advocates say

Health care reform would seem to have fallen off the political map in New Mexico. Gov. Bill Richardson has barely mentioned the subject since he called a special session of the Legislature in the summer of 2007 to ostensibly consider reform. Now legislators face the prospect of opening their 2009 session next month with a projected budget shortfall of $400 million this year, as well as next fiscal year.

Last chance, ladies: Get out and vote

Of all the depressing statistics bedeviling our nation right now, here’s one that’s easy to fix: When the polls close Tuesday night, one in three women will have failed to cast a ballot. Jane Addams and Susan B. Anthony, two of the suffragists who truly suffered through the long fight to win women’s right to vote, will be shaking their heads in shame.

Prez debate fact check guide: This one or ‘that one,’ they both lie

The nonpartisan truth factory known as Factcheck.org is as good a place as any to get your Wednesday night debate-watching detectors in gear. (It’s also a decent tool for setting some ground rules for a debate-watching drinking game, but the New Mexico Independent isn’t outright endorsing such potentially irresponsible behavior.)

Sarah Palin forgot three little words in last week’s veep debate

Sarah Palin said last week during the vice presidential debate that her family has endured periods where they’ve been uninsured and she understands what it’s like for Americans “to sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out how are they going to pay out-of-pocket for health care.” But she forgot to mention that most [...]