{"id":2766,"date":"2008-01-22T11:44:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-22T17:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/guv-to-meet-with-house-dems-on-health-care-plan\/"},"modified":"2008-01-22T11:44:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-22T17:44:00","slug":"guv-to-meet-with-house-dems-on-health-care-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/guv-to-meet-with-house-dems-on-health-care-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv to meet with House Dems on health-care plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> will meet this afternoon with the House Democratic caucus, apparently in an attempt to try to build momentum for his health-care reform proposal, which has gained little traction thus far in the legislative session. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The meeting between the governor and all House Democrats will be held on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse. It\u2019s being called a \u201ccrisis caucus\u201d by some House Democrats, though none I spoke with knew why or who started calling it that.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the bottom line: The crown jewel of Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s legislative agenda is universal health care. The governor\u2019s plan<\/a>, which would use a combination of government and private programs to cover all New Mexicans, is sponsored by John Heaton<\/a>, D-Carlsbad, and co-signed by only two others: Speaker Ben Lujan<\/a> and Majority Leader Ken Martinez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meanwhile, 30 House members signed on to the Health Security Act<\/a>, sponsored by Bobby Gonzales<\/a>, D-Taos. The competing legislation would set up a health-insurance cooperative and would ensure coverage for most New Mexicans.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While the Health Security Act also has a Senate sponsor, Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s plan does not.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The urgency of today\u2019s meeting might be due to the fact that Heaton\u2019s bill is scheduled for its first committee hearing on Wednesday at 8 a.m. The Health and Government Affairs Committee<\/a> could kill it then.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has been solely focused on his health-care proposal thus far in the session, in part because it\u2019s gained so little traction. Most lawmakers believe it\u2019s going nowhere.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is a skilled dealmaker and a master at thuggery. Don\u2019t count out his proposal yet.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 11:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

This is the regular meeting the governor holds with House Dems near the start of every session, a source I just spoke with said. The source suggested there was no urgency involved in today\u2019s meeting, though others who are also close to the situation disagree.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Regardless, most House Dems I spoke with expect heavy lobbying from the governor on his health-care proposal. It\u2019s at the top of his agenda, and most of them aren\u2019t on board with it. That will create tension at today\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 1:50 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The governor has continually met with legislators \u2013 individually and with their respective caucuses \u2013 since the start of the session about all of his priorities, including the Health Solutions New Mexico Act,\u201d Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said about today\u2019s meeting. \u201cThe governor has always maintained an open dialogue with the Legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson will meet this afternoon with the House Democratic caucus, apparently in an attempt to try to build momentum for his health-care reform proposal, which has gained little traction thus far in the legislative session. The meeting between the governor and all House Democrats will be held on the fourth floor of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}