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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Business Tells the Legislature That Health Care Is a Big Problem

By Andrew Webb
Journal Staff Writer
    Business and government people from around the state gathered in Santa Fe on Tuesday with a long list of concerns, ranging from the cost of health-care benefits to reliable water supplies.
    The Association of Commerce and Industry's annual Business Day in Santa Fe is a chance for state legislators to get input from business— from Albuquerque technology entrepreneurs to dairy farmers from Dexter.
    Unemployment is low, oil and natural gas revenues have filled the state's coffers, and high-profile businesses, such as Eclipse Aviation, have put New Mexico on the world stage.
    But the cost of providing health care insurance is becoming increasingly unmanageable for the smallest businesses.
    The mayor of Clayton wonders whose water a Texas cheese factory just across the border is going to use.
    And businesspeople said they're worried about the state's overburdened, underperforming education system, ill-defined eminent domain laws and complex tax policies.
    Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, spoke of the business community's hopes— "closing the achievement gap, strengthening our small-business climate, cutting taxes, increasing health care coverage of the uninsured, making New Mexico a safer place and supporting renewable-energy initiatives."
    The Legislature's mandate to try to deal with such problems is noted, said House Minority Leader Thomas Taylor, R-San Juan, who joined Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, House Speaker Ben Lujan and Senate President Pro Tempore Ben Altamirano at the conference.
    "Every solitary red cent the government spends comes from businesses," Taylor said. "Also, we use you as tax collectors. Plus, we also regulate the hell out of you."
    Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, standing in for a traveling Gov. Bill Richardson, said the state had made strides in increasing the number of insured but acknowledged there is more to be done. "We need to figure out how we're going to provide universal health care for every New Mexican if we're going to remain competitive."
    Also featured was an address by Robert Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank. Moffit said it will be states, not the federal government, that will find solutions to health care costs tailored to their specific populations.