Conflating Health Insurance with Health CARE


 Our politicians do not learn from history, even our own. House Bill 100 ("New Mexico Health Care Access Wins Final Approval," Los Alamos Post, Feb 19) just passed is touted to "increase[s] access to high-quality health care."Sadly, this is not true.

HB 100 will provide additional funds ("tools") to BeWellNM, New Mexico's ACA-created health insurance exchange, which provides subsidies to New Mexicans who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance and/or do not have employer-supported health coverage.

Full closure: From 2013 to 2019, I was the "Consumer Advocate" onBeWellNMBoard of Directors. I support its mission to improve access to care, not merely insuring more people.

Both our state representatives and the governor conflate the words insurance and access, implying they are the same. They most certainly are not!

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