0001|                       HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 60
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0002|     43RD LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - SECOND SESSION, 1998
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0003|                            INTRODUCED BY
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0004|                        PATSY TRUJILLO KNAUER
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0005|     
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0006|                                   
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0007|     
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0008|        FOR THE HEALTH AND WELFARE REFORM COMMITTEE
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0009|                              
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0010|                      A JOINT MEMORIAL
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0011|     REQUESTING A STUDY OF INCREASING AVAILABILITY OF EMPLOYEE
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0012|     HEALTH INSURANCE FROM CERTAIN EMPLOYERS.
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0013|     
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0014|          WHEREAS, New Mexico, sadly, is a national leader among
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0015|     states with high percentages of individuals and families
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0016|     living without health insurance, even though most uninsured
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0017|     adults are employed; and
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0018|          WHEREAS, more than fifty-six percent of uninsured New
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0019|     Mexico families have a single full-time wage earner, and an
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0020|     additional fourteen percent of our uninsured families have two
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0021|     full-time wage earners; and
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0022|          WHEREAS, only slightly more than fifty percent of New
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0023|     Mexico employers offer health insurance, though their number
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0024|     includes ninety-four percent of the employers of more than
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0025|     fifty employees; and
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0001|          WHEREAS, the legislature has enacted the Health Insurance
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0002|     Alliance Act to assist our small businesses to offer
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0003|     reasonable health insurance coverage to their employees; and
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0004|          WHEREAS, approximately one thousand New Mexico businesses
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0005|     participate in the alliance to offer their employees health
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0006|     insurance; and
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0007|          WHEREAS, various New Mexico tax savings, subsidies and
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0008|     training efforts are well designed to encourage creation of
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0009|     permanent jobs in our state, but not all of the employers
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0010|     benefiting from these programs offer their employees health
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0011|     insurance; and
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0012|          WHEREAS, the state needs to encourage all employers to
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0013|     follow the example of the most far-sighted businesses that
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0014|     offer employee health insurance as a matter of course to
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0015|     obtain and retain high quality employees; and
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0016|          WHEREAS, New Mexico taxpayers, either through medicaid or
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0017|     the various county indigent funds, ultimately pick up the bill
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0018|     for delivery of health care to the uninsured; and
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0019|          WHEREAS, it behooves the state of New Mexico, in the name
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0020|     of all of its citizens, to establish the highest standards for
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0021|     those businesses it chooses to assist, including reasonable
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0022|     employee benefits and employee health insurance; 
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0023|          NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE
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0024|     STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico health policy
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0025|     commission study the possibilities and advisability of
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0001|     requiring all businesses receiving various benefits, directly
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0002|     and indirectly, from the state or participating in state
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0003|     programs having the effect of subsidizing any part of their
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0004|     operation to offer their employees access to reasonable and
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0005|     adequate health insurance; and
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0006|          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the secretaries of economic
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0007|     development and human services and the superintendent of
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0008|     insurance, or their designees, cooperate in this study; and
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0009|          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the New Mexico health policy
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0010|     commission seek participation from statewide insurance
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0011|     organizations, including those that assist small businesses to
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0012|     obtain health insurance for their employees; and
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0013|          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be
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0014|     sent to the chairman of the New Mexico health policy
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0015|     commission for appropriate distribution.
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0016|                              
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