45th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2002

REQUESTING FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE POSSIBLE CREATION OF A CABINET LEVEL DEPARTMENT TO ADMINISTER THE MEDICAID PROGRAM PURSUANT TO TITLE 19 AND TITLE 21 OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT.

WHEREAS, medicaid, the insurance program for forty-four million low-income people nationwide, is in fiscal crisis, and in the state over five hundred fifty thousand people are eligible for medicaid; and

WHEREAS, legislatures around the country, including this legislature, must re-evaluate how benefits and payments are made to physicians, hospitals, nursing homes and pharmacies; and

WHEREAS, medicaid spending grew by eleven percent in 2001, and in many states spending on prescription drugs is rising at an annual rate of more than twenty percent; and

WHEREAS, at the same time of these rising prices, the revenue of New Mexico is declining, and in 1999 New Mexico's per capita income ranked forty-eighth in the nation; and

WHEREAS, various interim and statutory committees have expressed concern about the state's financial accountability and statutory and regulatory compliance with federal and state health programs; and

WHEREAS, advocates for health care consumers, disabled and elderly persons, children, poor families and other disenfranchised populations have similarly expressed concerns about the administration of federal and state health care programs; and

WHEREAS, the administration of health care programs has become increasingly complex and expensive; and

WHEREAS, numerous states have reorganized their executive departments responsible for providing health care to ensure appropriate and accountable oversight of state expenditures; and

WHEREAS, New Mexico needs a clear delineation of fiscal and policy responsibilities for health care administered, funded and delivered by the state;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the appropriate legislative committees be directed to study and assess the creation of a cabinet level department to administer medicaid and report to the legislature by October 31, 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the New Mexico legislative council.