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New Health Care Begins: Richardson executive order requires state vendors to provide insurance(Albuquerque Journal (NM) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 26--Gov. Bill Richardson on Thursday kicked off his new universal health care initiative by signing an executive order that requires state vendors to provide their employees health insurance. Richardson said the order and his legislative proposals, dubbed Health Solutions New Mexico, reflect his philosophy that "everybody shares" the responsibility, cost and benefits of universal health care coverage. The governor formally presented his plan at a ceremony at the University of New Mexico Hospital. He left without taking questions from reporters. "Our health care system is too complex," Richardson said in prepared remarks. "It asks employers and individuals to be insurance experts." Insurance companies discriminate against unhealthy individuals and payment systems reward expensive treatment instead of disease prevention, Richardson said. He said a proposed health care authority would become the single point of accountability for health care in New Mexico and would control increasing health care costs. Richardson also asked the Legislature to appropriate $1.5 million to expand programs to help military veterans with post traumatic stress disorder and to double funding used to help students become health care professionals. According to administrationprovided data, 69 percent of vendors who do business with the state already provide health insurance to their employees. Richardson's order requires all vendors who employ at least six people to provide health insurance. Richardson's universal coverage plan would, over time, require all New Mexicans to have health insurance or receive coverage through a public program. It would give the new authority power to control medical provider prices. It would limit insurance companies' ability to raise prices on small groups and require them to spend 85 percent of their premiums on health care. The plan can be downloaded from www.governor.state.nm.us/ healthsolutions.php. To see more of the Albuquerque Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.abqjournal.com. Copyright (c) 2007, Albuquerque Journal, N.M. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |