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.
UPDATED: 2:50 p.m. EST, with clarification*
Anti-abortion-rights group Operation Rescue has released its most recent undercover look at the American abortion industry, using excerpted audio recordings to show “millions of tax dollars are already paying for abortions each year.”
Insurance companies paid out $55 million in claims from the natural gas outage of last winter, reports Trip Jennings of The Santa Fe New Mexican. About $45 million went to homeowners, while more than $10 million went to commercial properties and $200,000 for automobile claims.
Gov. Susana Martinez signed legislation Monday that will strengthen regulatory power by the state on health insurance premium increases. The legislation is in response to large increases requested last year by Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico that were recently affirmed by the New Mexico Superintendent of Insurance.
Former Republican state legislator Ben Hall and former Democratic Doña Ana County commissioner Bill McCamley both want to clean up the powerful and scandal-plagued state Public Regulation Commission. The men, who are fighting over outgoing Commissioner Sandy Jones’s District 5 seat, both told The Independent they want to see increased PRC scrutiny of utility and insurance companies’ rate hikes, and increased accountability at the PRC’s semi-autonomous Division of Insurance. But the candidates differed on how they would achieve those goals.
New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) commissioners Thursday morning unanimously directed Interim Insurance Superintendent Thomas Rushton to rescind the Insurance Division’s controversial approval of a 21.3 percent hike in the health insurance rates for individual policyholders of Blue Cross Blue Shield N.M.
Rushton announced that he had recused himself from further involvement in the case.
That, at least, came as welcome news to the Attorney General’s office, according to Spokesman Phillip Sisneros.
“We do support Mr. Rushton’s recusal from a hearing on the matter,” Sisneros said. “(But) our position is still in support of the settlement. Remember, our agency is not the policy making authority on this issue and in fact, we were asked to step in to help find a resolution. We are happy to continue in that advisory role in the future.”
Rushton appeared reluctant to rescind the Insurance Division’s April approval of the rate hike, telling commissioners that rate change review procedures had been followed.
“There was a hearing conducted,” Rushton said. “There was prefiled testimony. There was discovery. There was a settlement reached, and Morris Chavez accepted that stipulated settlement.”
PRC Chairman David King interrupted Rushton to say that there were outside interests that had not been heard in the rate hike settlement process.
“We’ve had death threats to the Commission, to staff, and the former superintendent (Chavez),” King said. “They certainly followed the law, but it wasn’t done as well as in California,” where a Blue Cross rate hike was recently overturned.
Rushton assigned Deputy Insurance Superintendent Darlene Gomez to be the hearing officer for the reconsideration of the settlement approval. Gomez will receive whatever staffing assistance she needs from the Commission, King pledged.
But the Insurance Division will work under close Commission scrutiny, King said. King said the Commission will also ask for a third-party independent audit of Blue Cross Blue Shield NM’s financial records.
Commissioners King, Jason Marks, and Jerome Block, Jr. have all said they want the PRC to investigate why Blue Cross Blue Shield has a virtual monopoly in much of rural New Mexico.
Marks and Block appeared to try to manage policyholders’ expectations, Thursday.
“I don’t want false hope here,” Marks said. “It’s only right to do what we can. But we don’t want false hope. There’s still a stipulated settlement.”
Block said Blue Cross Blue Shield was starting “from scratch,” as far as he was concerned.
But he cautioned that the company would not take the Commission’s decision lightly, and warned policyholders that the extra scrutiny could backfire on consumers.
“They’re going to come out swinging,” Block said. “There could be (financial) data that justifies a higher increase. I hope the public is ready to face that outcome if it’s substantially different.”
Switching interim superintendents?
Marks also floated the possibility of replacing Rushton as interim superintendent with former insurance superintendent Don Letherer, noting that Rushton is very busy.
“Don could keep the wheels on,” Marks said. “We’d have twice the assurance the job’s getting done.”
Commissioners agreed to add a meeting with Letherer to next week’s Commission agenda.
Lively debate preceded the Senate’s Wednesday vote in favor (23-15) on SB 148, which prohibits insurance companies from using gender as a factor in determining health insurance rates.
Somehow, people have gotten the idea that medical care ought to be free. Our employers ought to pay for our insurance, and that insurance ought to cover every red cent we spend keeping ourselves healthy. Better yet, the government ought to pay for it. Why not? If public education is a right, why not health care?
