03/10/2008
The "Capitol Crud:" A sickness or another name for the 2008 proposed healthcare plans?
As Gov. Bill Richardson jetted around the country this past fall, his focus on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the primary item on the agenda for the 2008 legislative session was universal healthcare. There were several healthcare proposals that were detrimental from the perspective of running a business in New Mexico. Primarily, the Health Solutions Act, HB 62, pushed by the administration, would have required all employers to pay $500 into a fund for each employee who either refused your healthcare plan or if less than $500 was paid towards that employee's healthcare benefits per year. The money would be intended to go into a fund to pay for the estimated 10,000 kids and 400,000 adults who don't have healthcare benefits -- that's nearly 20 percent of the population.
This plan initially had a mandate that all New Mexico residents had to have health insurance, and like car insurance, would have had to show proof at the time of license renewal. Well, we all know how well the mandatory car insurance program has worked -- just look at the huge jump in car insurance premiums since the state put that rule into effect. The burden for the cost of the healthcare program would be on the shoulders of employers -- who would also be liable for reporting what type of insurance their employees had -- even if not through their company.
But the numbers didn't add up and the legislators saw that. Even with the administration repeatedly changing their proposal and impact figures, they refused to give up executive branch control over a new behemoth agency created in this bill. Ultimately, the bill did pass the House (37-31) but was stalled in the Senate.
The Health Security Act, HB 241 and SB 3, were bills modeled after the Canadian universal healthcare system. The government would be the sole provider of healthcare, or at least would be the one paying for it -- i.e., a single-payer system. By putting all New Mexicans in one insurance pool, this proposal cut out private insurance and allegedly controlled the cost of healthcare. The funding for this program was unknown, but raising taxes was not out of the realm of possibility. While this plan would not directly burden businesses with the cost of the program, the details on cost were sketchy at best. Neither bill survived past committee hearings.
Whether universal healthcare is something Gov. Richardson will leave as part of his legacy to the Land of Enchantment is still yet to be determined. While his bill was overwhelmingly defeated during the session, Richardson has met with legislative leadership who agreed to come back to the table in June. "Capitol Crud" is the name affectionately used around the Roundhouse during those long January days to refer to the flu that everyone seems to get, but this year the "crud" consisted of the terribly conceived healthcare bills that would have harmed all businesses in New Mexico. When the governor calls for the special session this coming June, let's see if we could just avoid getting that awful "Capitol Crud" again.
