HOUSE MEMORIAL 33

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2015

INTRODUCED BY

Deborah A. Armstrong

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THAT THE LEGISLATIVE FINANCE COMMITTEE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH STUDY UNCOMPENSATED HEALTH CARE IN NEW MEXICO HOSPITALS.

     WHEREAS, New Mexico has had considerable uncompensated health care expenses due to the state's large percentage of uninsured patients; and

     WHEREAS, the cost of uncompensated health care is passed on to individuals who have health insurance coverage by increasing their premiums; and

     WHEREAS, a 2011 study by families USA found that in New Mexico, two thousand three hundred dollars ($2,300) of the average premium of a family health coverage plan was attributable to uncompensated health care and that the average premium for a single health coverage plan was eight hundred ninety dollars ($890); and

     WHEREAS, in 2011, the New Mexico office of health care reform determined that the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would reduce the number of uninsured people in New Mexico by at least two hundred eighty thousand by 2016; and

     WHEREAS, the human services department reported that in October 2014, the number of new enrollees in medicaid was more than one hundred seventy-six thousand; and

     WHEREAS, the reduction in the number of uninsured individuals should considerably reduce the amount of uncompensated health care costs in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, a September 2014 United States department of health and human services report noted that uncompensated health care costs were reduced by at least twenty-five percent in states like New Mexico that adopted medicaid expansion; and

     WHEREAS, as a result of additional health care coverage provided by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, there are possible savings in costs related to breast and cervical cancer treatment, medicaid-funded inpatient care for state inmates, mental health and substance abuse treatment, public employee and retiree coverage, state-funded indigent care and limited-coverage medicaid programs;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the department of health and the legislative finance committee be requested to study the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on uncompensated health care and other health care costs in New Mexico hospitals; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the department of health and the legislative finance committee be requested to produce a report on the effects on uncompensated health care and other costs of the additional insurance coverage provided by the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the report be presented to the legislative finance committee and the legislative health and human services committee by October 1, 2015; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the chair of the legislative finance committee, the secretary of health and the chair of the legislative health and human services committee.

- 3 -