Universal health care wrangling continues

Gov. Bill Richardson and the Senate may be on the way to compromising on some health-care reforms, but not the switch to universal health care the governor wants.

In an interview with the Albuquerque Journal, Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said there isn’t money to pay for the universal health-care plan Richardson pushed but lawmakers rejected earlier this year.

Still, Smith said, Richardson and a key group of lawmakers have agreed to “find a way to help physicians adopt electronic medial record systems,” according to the Journal. They also agreed that the state retirees’ health-coverage pool needs reform, and that they all support insurance reform.

The last is a broad topic, and how to reform the system has caused widespread disagreement in Santa Fe. But if lawmakers can find compromise on electronic records and reform of the retirees’ pool — or even one of those topics — the special session Richardson said last week he’ll call later this summer is one he will probably declare a success.