Richardson Light on Health Care Details

Bill Richardson like Obama has not fleshed out his health care policy in any great detail. There is an executive summary on his website, but little substance behind it beyond the basic outline.

• Working families and small businesses will be able to purchase coverage through the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan.
• Americans 55 and older will be able to purchase coverage through Medicare. Seniors and persons with disabilities will also receive all of their care through Medicare, rather than multiple, uncoordinated, inadequate programs, as they do now.
• Lower-income Americans will obtain affordable coverage through expanded Medicaid and State Child Health Insurance (SCHIP) programs.
• Veterans will get access to the high-quality care they deserve, when they need it, without bureaucratic hassles.

Richardson also wants to pass an advance refundable tax credit to help people obtain coverage through the FEHB or Medicare. He would demand all employees to "do their fair share to contribute to a healthy and covered workforce". It is a nice statement for sure, but has not details as to what their "fair share" would entail. Richardson would require all Americans to obtain coverage after his other reforms are in place.

Like rest of the field, he sees savings in streamlining health care administration and emphasizing preventative care. Richardson also would support a "Medical Borrower's Fairness Act" to "provide immediate relief to families forced to borrow to pay for medical expenses."

Gov. Richardson has no specific numbers, in terms of cost, savings or people covered. He did say at the health care forum in Las Vegas that his proposal would not require new revenue.

"This is a plan that would not add bureaucracy," he said. "This is a plan that could be paid for without any new taxes."

Richardson said he would fund his proposal by ending the war in Iraq and shifting some of the billions being spent there to health care.

Richardson is actually working on a universal plan for New Mexico, where he serves as governor. He is facing an enormous problem in New Mexico, which has the second highest rate of uninsured in the country at 21%. I would love to know more about that plan, the lessons he has learned from his attempts to cover all New Mexicans, after extending insurance to a limited number in his term as governor. He has nine bills pending in the NM state legislature, costing $110 million over two years, which aim to reduce the uninsured rate.

Hopefully, there will be more opportunities for Richardson to talk about his experiences at the state level, plus flesh out his national plan.