By Dan Foley
As the citizens of the great State of
Over the last few years we’ve heard a lot of talk about the number of uninsured in this state, and there’s been considerable debate about that number. Advocates of universal care repeatedly state that there are 400,000 uninsured New Mexicans. What they don’t tell you is that roughly half, or 200,000 of those, are currently eligible for some state or federal program but have chosen not to sign up for them.
I’m sure there will be a few folks who will tell you that’s because people don’t know about the programs. But if you have driven around our state, you know from billboards, radio and TV ads in every region that probably isn’t true either.
In fact we spend a considerable amount of your tax dollars on this kind of “outreach.” It is a fair question to ask: Does this kind of advertising count as “administrative costs?” Would it be fair to limit that kind of expense in the same way that many advocates of government health care want to limit the administrative costs in the private sector?
A ‘small math error?’
I digress though. The point is that we can’t even agree on the number of uninsured. How can you expect us to agree on the solution? The state hired a company — at huge cost to the taxpayers — to come here and tell us what all of this (universal health care) would cost. After a long, drawn-out process they came up with a figure, only to show up days before the last session to tell us their math was wrong. They told us we had to throw out their published study and substitute new numbers they had just decided were more accurate, just because we should trust them.
This whole incident seemed suspicious. You see, what they had come in with in their original study showed that the goals of the government health-care advocates required a staggering, budget-busting expenditure. Their shift almost made you wonder if someone had gotten to them and said, “You have to lower the cost estimates for universal care, otherwise the whole discussion will come to a halt.”
Forgive me, but that seems a more plausible explanation for this incident than their testimony that they had just made a “small math error.” In any case, this points to the importance of really knowing how many people are truly uninsured. We have to recognize that many of the so-called uninsured are simply not applying for programs they are in fact eligible for. We also have to know that a number of folks self-insure, pay cash or trade for their health care, or just plain don’t want to pay for insurance at all.
The number of truly uninsured is an all-important question for this reason: Government-provided health care is what the courts in
This really isn’t a partisan question. I can assure you everyone wants everyone to have health-care coverage. Heck, even the insurance companies want you to have coverage. That’s how they make their money.
Find the barriers, work with the professionals
But studying this issue helps you see yet another of the true differences between the two major political parties in
The other party thinks the government alone has all the answers and that a cookie cutter approach — a one-size-fits-all model — can be applied everywhere to everybody.
Folks, I’m here to tell you the health-care needs in
Is it completely logical to say that the very organization that has “correctly funded and administered” our schools, “fixed our roads,” or “resolved the water problems” in this state actually has all the answers for health care? Or is it more logical to ask, “Does New Mexico state government really have a great record in all these areas?”
I think you get the point. Let’s work with the private sector to first find out what the real barriers to covering all New Mexicans are. Then let’s see how we can work with the people who do this every day, so we don’t end up working against them. Only then can we begin to “fix” the “crisis” facing our state.
Foley is the outgoing minority whip in the New Mexico House of Representatives and a Republican from