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.
New Mexico hasn’t had much experience with rejecting health insurers’ rate requests. But another state, Massachusetts, has gotten tons this year. In April Massachusetts rejected 235 of 274 proposed premium increases requested by health insurers who offered plans on the state’s health insurance exchange.
Massachusetts’ action opens a window into the questions and issues New Mexico might encounter if it strengthens its authority to reject health insurance rate requests prior to 2014, when the federal health care law empowers states to reject unreasonable premium rate increases.
As New Mexico officials prepare to increase oversight of health insurance rates—with one eye on an influx of federal cash and the other on impending health care reform rules—members of the Public Regulation Commission are already struggling with public pressure to crack down on rapidly rising rates. Now PRC Commissioner Jason Marks says state law should be strengthened to require the Insurance Superintendent to reject unreasonable premium rate requests.
Massachusetts was the first in the nation to try a health insurance exchange—but it’s also working hard to keep costs down. As part of that effort, state regulators rejected several rate increase requests from health insurers this spring. When the…
On Thursday state lawmakers, government officials and others got a glimpse at two potential models for health insurance exchanges mandated by federal healthcare reform. Supporters of Massachusetts’ plan say the state provides an example of public-private partnership that’s working toward universal coverage. Supporters of Utah’s plan, on the other hand, hail it for allowing the health insurance industry to have more latitude with an emphasis on private-sector.
A new study by Families USA, a consumer health organization, says 380,000 New Mexicans under the age of 65 can expect to be protected by provisions in the new federal health care reform legislation, which bars insurance companies from denying coverage…
Many details will need to be worked out before New Mexico fully adopts federal healthcare legislation passed this spring. A shortage of health care workers, multiple bureaucratic hurdles and enforcement questions all must be addressed before 150,000 previously uninsured New Mexicans can take advantage of newly available coverage.
As soon as October New Mexicans and small businesses here will be able to comparison shop on options for health insurance, state officials said Thursday.
A federal website should be up and running by summer to provide consumers general information…
There’s an interesting bit of data buried in the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Despite some loud calls for a repeal of the health care reform bill, more people would rather take a wait-and-see approach to health care…
Tea Party leaders met with state Attorney General Gary King today to try to convince him to file a lawsuit against the federal government to repeal health care reform legislation that passed Congress and was signed by President Barack Obama…
U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, a first-term Democrat, won in 2008 in part by talking about how he treated his employees, including proudly boasting that his companies provided health care for those who worked for him.
That’s no longer the…
New Mexico likely will cap the number of New Mexicans who can join a new federal program for hard-to-insure individuals. Only 1,000 to 1,500 New Mexicans could enroll in a federal high-risk pool, which starts July 1 and is the first reform to hit New Mexico from the new health care law. The reason: the pot of money from Washington won’t stretch that far, state officials said.
Does Blue Cross Blue Shield New Mexico’s rate increase presage a coming stampede from health insurers seeking increased rates prior to the first reforms of the new federal health care laws taking effect? A quick survey of several officials in recent days found differing opinions on the question. But a few pointed to several provisions in the new law that could lead health insurers to request rate increases.
New Mexico’s Tea Parties are planning to present Attorney General Gary King with a petition to join other states’ lawsuits against the federal government to reverse health care reform. But the tide seems to be turning against support for such a move, if letters to the AG website are any indication. After an initial flood of often vitriolic comments demanding New Mexico sue the federal government to halt health reform, mid-April brought a majority of letters opposed to such a suit, The Independent has found.
A quirk in the new federal health care law will result in roughly 3,000 hard-to-insure New Mexicans unable to qualify for a federal program that could save them money on purchasing health coverage. The federal program – a high-risk pool for individuals, many with preexisting conditions – starts July 1 and would be open to hard-to-insure individuals who have gone uninsured for six months, but not to those already enrolled in the state’s own high risk pool, officials confirmed.
In 2014, the federal government will pay 100 percent of health care costs under Medicaid, the government’s low-income health care program, thanks to the new federal health care reform law. But between now and then the health care portion of New Mexico’s state budget could soar as more people enroll in the government program and federal stimulus dollars disappear.
Republican members of the New Mexico House of Representatives have asked Attorney General Gary King to join a lawsuit that would repeal the health care reform bill. The move mirrors a national trend by some Republican attorneys general who are suing to stop the reforms.
The new federal health care reform law may add millions of Americans to the ranks of the insured. Much less unheralded, says a national consumers group, is the law’s attempt to reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections, a problem that has garnered scrutiny over the past decade. The new act, signed into law by President Obama last month, also will require more public reporting of medical errors, such as infections, at hospitals, something that is not yet occurring in New Mexico.
Health care reform has tanning salon owners seeing red in New Mexico, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported Monday.
The reform law’s new 10 percent federal tax on tanning services kicks in July 1. The number of tanning salons in…
According to a national poll by The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, health care is still on the minds of the public, while news on jobs is still seen as bad despite some positive…
A regulatory overhaul of the financial industry is probably the next thing Congress will tackle, Congressman Martin Heinrich said Wednesday in an interview in Albuquerque. President Obama outlined a major financial reform plan last summer, but the plan still faces many roadblocks. Still, Heinrich said Tuesday he’s “optimistic that we will have a Wall Street reform bill in the next couple of months.”
