INM EFFECT
Contrary to your charge of ineffectuality [Outtakes, June 22:
], a couple of Insure New Mexico's (INM) proposals, in some form, not only were introduced as bills in the Legislature this year, but passed. One was to allow part-time employees to participate in their employer's group policy and the other allows small groups without coverage to join the state's plan.
Also in contrast to your assertion, I would say INM was stacked with pro-reform Richardson-ites, and their meetings closed primarily in order to exclude industry participation, to ram through their agenda for presentation to the Legislature. In this, they were successful, although other bills failed to pass.
Aside from risking running foul of major federal legislation protecting employees' rights, such as HIPAA and COBRA, violations of which can bankrupt business owners, the premise that you share with them, that "allowing private employees to join public workers in pooling for lower health costs, is false. Furthermore, individual policies, available without working for a company, generally cost less than group insurance, primarily because here insurance companies have greater flexibility, resulting in more choice.
The purpose of INM, contrary to your assertion of anti-reform, in fact is to create incremental change toward a single payer system. As difficult as things are right now and as tempting as mandatory participation sounds, aside from the problem of a prevailing sentiment of anti-taxation, I'm not sure I would prefer New Mexico state government in charge of my healthcare, or that doctors would tolerate it.
Barry HatfieldSanta Fe
GLIMMER OF HOPE
Dan Frosch's thoughtful story,
once again brought to light the critical state of health care in New Mexico. This state's overall rate of uninsured has been running at almost 25 percent, the highest in the nation. For Native American youth, it is over 40 percent.
While health care access remains bleak, one glimmer of hope is the safety net being provided through a network of school-based health centers (SBHCs) around the state. These accessible, youth-friendly centers provide a wide variety of physical and mental health services to all students regardless of their ability to pay or their insurance status.
In this area, the governor has proposed an initiative, which, if fully funded, will double the number of SBHCs from the current 34 to 68. I applaud this effort as a major step forward in improving the health prospects for New Mexico's uninsured children.
At the same time, however, many of the existing SBHCs, particularly in rural areas, are woefully under-funded and struggling to remain open. (In 2002, there were nearly 50, and today, just 34.)
Howard SpiegelmanSanta Fe
AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN
Impeach Bush [Letters, June 15: "Just (Im) Peachy"]? It's a capital idea! The evidence of his impeachable high crimes is all over the place, but it ain't gonna happen. Too many members of Congress also are crooks. Like the former Texas pesticide salesman Tom Delay, who stands next in line to be president should God in his mercy relieve the world of Bush and Big Dick Cheney. Delay is presently trying to weasel out of ethics charges in Washington and indictment back in Texas.
You can be sure the ruthless Karl Rove has dossiers on all of them and he would not hesitate to make up shocking lies about the few that are squeaky clean. Remember when Rove circulated the vicious lie that John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black daughter? The truth is Mr. and Mrs. McCain had adopted an orphan from India. But the lie worked in that election.
Mark R LeeLamy, NM
NO MORE POOH-POOHING
I want to commend Nathan Dinsdale's toxic mold story [Cover story, June 22:
] which was thorough, accurate and insightful. Many physicians, the New Mexico Department of Health and other newspapers sometimes scoff at and pooh-pooh toxic mold and other environmental illnesses out of ignorance and belligerent indifference. I'd like to see Mr. Dinsdale examine three other areas: 1) Mercury's neurotoxicity in dental amalgams and vaccinations, a topic to be considered in the 2006 New Mexico State Legislature; 2) the neurotoxicity of aspartame and other sweeteners and their medical effects, especially on children and the elderly; and 3) the ill-conceived practice of giving Ritalin and other amphetamines to the so-called Attention Deficit Disorder kids and the shocking fact that there are no statutes whatsoever in New Mexico governing the 7 percent of our kids getting prescription drugs through the schools.
Let's see more of Nathan Dinsdale's intelligent articles on serious health and medical issues.
Stephen FoxSanta Fe
STATE SOLUTION?
We need a total overhaul of consumer protection statutes in New Mexico and to enforce those which are already on the books.
Consumer protection should be expanded to include the state requiring truth in labeling, in every single grocery store and convenience store, as well as serious efforts to protect our health in a biochemical, nutritional, medical, and even molecular sense-getting labels on all of the toxic additives in food like aspartame, monosodium glutamate, carcinogenic food colorings, things which cause cancer and neurodegenerative illnesses like Lou Gehrig's disease, and all of the junk on the FDA's so-called "Generally Recognized as Safe" list.
I urge Gov. Bill Richardson to exert some of his vast power by directing the Environment Department to take immediate action on this issue. That is what real leaders are supposed to do.
Rather than wait for some citizen group or individual to assemble the best solution, the state should be putting its entire weight and resources behind this effort, starting first with getting rid of the artificial sweetener (which gets assimilated as formaldehyde) aspartame.
The longer the governor and the Environment Department wait, the more poisoned kids we turn out, and the more adult lives are cut short by totally preventable illnesses.
Paul WhiteSanta Fe
NICE SEGUE
Mark Lee [Letters, June 22:
] complains about the words "kudos," "segue" and "vet," without offering any particular rationale other than they evidently strike him as cliches.
But in his own rant he uses the term, "bitch-slap," whose obvious meaning makes it much more repulsive than any of the words he's criticizing.
On a related note, regarding cliches, David Letterman is on a campaign to popularize expressions he claims deserve to enter the popular lexicon, such as-currently-"Don't go there!"
Jim TerrSanta Fe The Reporter welcomes original, signed letters to the editor. Letters (no more than 200 words) should refer to specific articles in the Reporter. They may be edited for clarity and space. Include address and phone number for verification purposes; these will not be published. Mail to Letters, Santa Fe Reporter, PO Box 2306, Santa Fe NM 87504, deliver to 132 E. Marcy St., fax to 505-988-5348 or e-mail (editor@sfreporter.com) .
