Health care talks set stage for session

Aug 02, 2008 (The Santa Fe New Mexican - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- RNDOF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Aug. 2--Gov. Bill Richardson's proposal to reform New Mexico's health care system already went through Round One earlier this year during the Legislature's regular session.

Now, his plan for dealing with the state's high rate of uninsured has to make it past a series of important meetings before it can be considered in a special session scheduled to start Aug. 15 in Santa Fe.

Both House and Senate members will hold private caucuses in the next two weeks, and several lawmakers say that's where they will again think seriously about Richardson's approach and how to pay for it.

"I don't know whether we have agreed or not," Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell, said. "We have to have a caucus first."

In the last session, Richardson's bill to require all New Mexicans to get health insurance starting in 2010 was gutted when a House committee stripped out its insurance mandates and a requirement that employers pay into a health care system that would cover 400,000 New Mexicans now lacking insurance. It then died in the Senate.

Richardson's office wouldn't comment Friday on his latest meetings with legislators, but in a statement through a spokesman, he seemed optimistic he can get his plans passed, and fast.

"Governor Richardson also continued his dialogue with legislative leaders in the Senate and House and believes they can reach a consensus quickly during this month's special session -- delivering tax relief to thousands of New Mexicans and assuring every child gets the coverage they deserve," spokesman Allan Oliver said.

In addition to health care reform, the administration is tweaking a proposal to use an expected surplus in oil and gas revenue this year to give tax relief to residents struggling with higher gasoline and food costs. The average resident would get about $206 under the governor's relief plan, which would cost $211 million.

While lawmakers in general have said they support the idea of giving money to residents to help them deal with a sagging economy, some are worried about whether the state can still afford to do so.

The administration earlier this year announced it expected a surplus of about $400 million. But energy prices have dropped recently.

"We don't believe there's 400 million even out there," Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces, said this week.

"We're just guarded that the revenue estimates will hold," he said, "and we don't want to spend the money if we don't have it."

Richardson, however, has said he's not worried about the revenue projections and still plans to call the session later this month.

Revenue or not, getting legislators to sign on to his health care plan might not be easy. Richardson largely left the regular session empty-handed regarding what was a central part of his agenda.

Rawson said lawmakers remain wary of giving Richardson too much control over a proposed health care authority that would oversee changes the governor wants in the health care system. Control of that board was a major point of contention during the regular session. "The concern we've got really boils down to the governor-appointed board," Rawson said.

The governor, meanwhile, met Friday with "dozens of health-care and anti-poverty organizations and advocates, and was pleased to see an expression of strong support for his health care and tax relief packages," Oliver said.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog, Green Chile Chatter, at www.santafenewmexican.com.

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