Comments from Jane Blume of the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign, a coalition of 146 organizations:

    JANE: The Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign wants to see language included in the national legislation that gives states the flexibility to develop their own approaches to solving the problems of growing numbers of uninsured and rising health care costs.

    Currently, the draft health care reform legislation in both houses of Congress only allows states to set up “insurance market exchanges.” These exchanges must offer consumers choices of different insurance products, including a public plan option – an option which may be dropped from the legislation altogether.

    States have always been the laboratories for innovation. Women’s suffrage, civil rights, child labor and minimum wage laws were developed in the states first - and then became federal law. Why shouldn’t states be allowed to continue that role? If a state can develop an approach that differs from an insurance market exchange, an approach that still provides health coverage for its residents and contains rising health care costs, why shouldn’t it be allowed to do so?

    In our state, the Health Security Act offers a different solution from the insurance market exchange. It is a “home-grown” solution that has earned enormous public support: 146 diverse organizations are part of our coalition, and 32 New Mexico counties and municipalities have passed endorsing resolutions.

    The Health Security Act would enable our state to set up our own health care plan that automatically covers most New Mexicans with comprehensive benefits, and guarantees choice of doctor (even across state lines). Instead of creating a system of competing insurance plans, this proposal would shift the role of the insurance companies to provide supplementary coverage – like Medicare.

    Two separate studies have concluded that if such a plan were established in New Mexico, health care costs would be reduced by hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars, within five years of beginning operation.

    Why is this so? Because this approach simplifies a very complex private insurance system with its hundreds of policies, different benefits, co-pays and deductibles, all of which impact the administrative overhead of doctors, hospitals and clinics – and which, in turn, negatively affect health care costs.

    Coalitions in other states have been working on proposals that do not depend on a private insurance paradigm. Acknowledging these developments, the National Conference of State Legislators recently passed a resolution, which included a request that states be allowed to create solutions that go beyond any federal requirements.

    Aside from the need for state flexibility language in the national legislation, our Campaign believes that states developing their own health plans should also have the right to access the same federal dollars as states that choose to set up insurance market exchanges.

    If we want New Mexico to establish its own health plan, instead of relying on our complex private insurance system, then our two U.S. Senators and three Congressmen must hear from us that we want state flexibility language included in federal health care reform legislation. And -- they need to hear from us now.

    ANNOUNCER OUTRO: Jane Blume is the media-relations consultant to the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign. The Campaign’s website address is www.nmhealthsecurity.org.

    The Santa Fe City Council and the Santa Fe County Commission are among 31 New Mexico counties and municipalities endorsing this legislation.

    As an organization that speaks for small independent businesses, non-profits and their employees, the Santa Fe Alliance decided to support the Health Security Act because we believe it is the only solution that will fix our broken health care system.

    Consider these grim facts: 400,000 New Mexicans – almost a quarter of our population - have no health insurance; a decreasing number of insured are paying ever-rising premiums to cover medical care for an increasing number of uninsured; and our member organizations cannot afford to pay for such badly needed coverage. There is a heavy social and economic burden on affected families, employers, health care providers, all cities and counties, and the state of New Mexico.

    Affordable health insurance is also a critical employee recruitment and retention issue for our members. They cannot operate on a “level playing field” because it is difficult to compete for good employees with larger entities that can afford to purchase health insurance. Those who have less than five employees do not quality for group insurance plans.

    Even when our members do attract good employees, they often lose them to organizations that do offer health insurance and other benefits. And it’s costly to replace these workers: $4,500 just to recruit a new part-time person working in Santa Fe.

    The Health Security Act will benefit our members in many ways:

    1. Leveling the playing field for employers. HSA sets up a cooperative health plan that automatically covers most New Mexicans in one large risk pool with comprehensive services - regardless of their health, economic or employment status. This means that even part-time employees will have coverage. (The only populations not covered are active-duty and retired military and federal retirees. Tribes and organizations that self-insure under ERISA may elect to join the plan.)

    2. Affordable health coverage - at last. We know from a 2007 Richardson Administration-commissioned study of several comprehensive health coverage reform proposals, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, that the Health Security Act was the only plan that cost less than the current system -- and the only one that would save up to $200 million in its first year of operation alone.

    The new health plan will be financed by efficiently combining government monies spent on health care with individual and family premiums based upon income, and employer contributions (with caps).

    As small businesses, we are well aware that larger risk pools have lower per-capita premiums. With an estimated 1.6 million New Mexicans in one pool, we will see cost containment, lower prices for prescription drugs and medical supplies, less administrative complexity for our doctors, hospitals and clinics, and no more uncompensated care for the uninsured.

    Furthermore, any premiums and contributions will be offset to some extent with lower rates for Worker’s Compensation and private passenger and commercial vehicle insurance – because the Health Security plan would be responsible for paying for the injury.

    3. A healthier, more productive workforce. With everyone having health coverage, a comprehensive benefit package and no co-pays for preventive care (required under the legislation), our employees will be healthier and more productive in the long run, and we will see fewer days missed from work.

    4. Having our say. Businesses will be represented on the citizens’ commission that is responsible for the plan. Currently, small, independent businesses and non-profits have no negotiating clout with insurance companies. We have to pay the premiums they charge us, drop coverage, or choose not to have coverage at all.

    Now, our voices will be heard. The plan’s books will be subject to public scrutiny, and no plan changes can be made without public input.

    5. Freedom of Choice. The Health Security Act guarantees freedom of choice of doctor and hospital – even across state lines - and shifts the role of insurance companies to provide supplementary coverage – similar to what happened with Medicare. If anyone wants to purchase more coverage, they can.

    6. Money for other critical needs. Since the Health Security Act will save money and decrease the percentage of funds that cities, counties and the state spend on health care, it frees up badly needed financial resources for such vital needs as economic development, education, and the environment. Given our current state budget crisis, this is a benefit that has become even more important.

    7. Careful implementation/go-slow approach. The Health Security Act calls for a careful, three-year implementation process. In the first year after the legislation is passed, the Legislative Finance Committee, with public input, will determine the cost and financing of the health plan. The legislature and governor then must approve the financing package. In other words, the plan must prove to be affordable before the next phase can begin.

    In the second and third years, the plan will be developed (again with public input), with the ability to make adjustments, extend the time to proceed - or put on the brakes - should this phase prove not to be workable.

    We believe that New Mexico is better off creating its own approach now to the health care crisis instead of waiting for an unspecified national solution that may take many years to become reality.

    None of us can afford to wait any longer for the only plan that gets New Mexico’s rising health care costs under control and results in everyone having health coverage.

    2009 is the year that we should – and must – invest in health security for New Mexico. We urge the legislature to pass the Health Security Act.

This commentary was published online at New West-Unfiltered on December 22, 2008.

    We don't have to slaughter America's wild horses because their herds are supposedly too large; horses can actually help us improve lands that are suffering from drought.

    In a recent article in Science magazine, Hansen and several colleagues wrote, “…if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, CO2 must be reduced from its present 385 ppm (parts per million) to, at most, 350 ppm.”

    And Pachauri has pointed out that "If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment."

    I couldn’t agree more.

    It’s certainly a “defining moment” for people in sub-Saharan Africa, where soil loss and desertification have led to widespread hunger and malnutrition; and the population can no longer be sustained. And it’s certainly a defining moment for New Mexico’s Rio Puerco, which in the 1880s had grass as high as a horse’s belly. Today, it’s desert. There are numerous other examples that could be cited.

    Holistic Management practitioners working on over 30 million acres worldwide have given a lot of thought to desertification, global warming and climate change; and we’ve realized that it’s critical to get people to understand (especially if they live in urban or suburban areas) that it is our soils --- the dirt --- that provide everything it takes for us to survive.

    Without healthy soil, we can’t grow our food, nourish our livestock, conserve water and resist the effects of drought, erosion and climate change.

    If we want to combat global warming by reducing carbon dioxide emissions, then we need to make some important changes in how we manage land. We begin by restoring topsoil to health – with methods like no-till farming and organic farming. But then, we have to go deeper.

    “Going deeper” means instituting measures that will help improve biodiversity, reverse desertification, and sequester carbon. The folks we work with utilize an approach with animals called “planned grazing,” which works today -- as it did for thousands of years with wild animals whose predators kept them on the move.

    As the animals moved, their hooves worked the soil, which allowed for quick absorption of their urine and dung. The soil became and remained fertilized, and the land was healthy.

    Over the past 24 years, HMI’s approach has been to plan the grazing, move the animals, and monitor them as well as the land –and the results have been very powerful. We have measured solid improvements in land health by the successful introduction of new seedlings, the extent of plant and biodiversity in the deep soil, water infiltration in the soil, and decreasing soil erosion.

    The bottom line is, if livestock owners, public land agencies and the public can all work together to change how we manage the relationship between domestic grazing animals and the land, we will have a real opportunity to improve land health, reduce carbon emissions substantially, and help achieve NASA scientist Jim Hansen’s goal of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere from 385 parts per million to 350.

Holistic Management International (HMI) works with stewards of large land holdings on four continents to restore land to health, productivity and profitability. Telephone: 505-842-5252. www.holisticmanagement.org

    I started learning these lessons watching my father, Harry Jew, who owned the New Chinatown Restaurant - but not the land it occupied. My dad made hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments on a loan he took out to tear down the old restaurant and build a new one… on the property taxes… and all the upkeep on the building. If he had owned the property, he would have built up hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity over New Chinatown’s forty-plus years of existence. Our family sold the business shortly after my father passed away.

    My father’s life circumstances were very different from mine. He was an adopted child who immigrated to America, by himself, from China, at the age 15, with only $5 in his pocket. He felt very lucky to be here and to own a business. Owning the land was not important to him; but I saw all that equity being thrown away every month and decided that ownership was important to me.

    Of course, ownership is not for everyone. But if you want to own property, here are some helpful hints:

1. Buy in the right area; your property will appreciate over time. My mother Jean, brother Stan and I bought a building on Girard for the first Kim Jew Photography studio in 1985. Our brother, Paul, who is based there, needs more space for his School Division and lab and is buying another building.
   
   We have received a firm purchase offer; the property is located in a stable neighborhood and its value has increased considerably. Our biggest concern now is the capital gains taxes (a good problem).
   
2. Equity has advantages. If you own property, have equity in the property and need a loan, it will be much easier for you to get the money if your bank can use this equity as collateral.
   
3. Consider a private financial arrangement. The majority of small-business commercial transactions are not financed through banks because it is not that easy to borrow large sums of money – especially in today’s credit climate.
   
   When I purchased property for our Eubank studio three years ago, the owner helped finance the transaction by carrying the real estate contract. This arrangement is advantageous to the seller, because by spreading out the payments, he avoids high capital gains taxes.
   
4. Consider an SBA-guaranteed loan. Because I needed working capital to make extensive renovations to the Eubank building, I sought and received an SBA-guaranteed loan from a bank specializing in such lending. I only had to pay 10% down on the property (normally, it’s 20%) and the interest rate was lower.
   
5. Leverage your relationships. I made the financial arrangements for the Eubank property fairly quickly because our CPA knew and trusted a mortgage broker, who in turn had a relationship with a bank that works closely with the SBA.
   
   These associations helped me obtain a second SBA-guaranteed loan to purchase and renovate property in the heart of Corrales – which replaces the space I was leasing on Coors for our West Side studio.

    Historically, land has appreciated in Albuquerque at an annual rate of 6-7%. While current economic conditions have flattened these figures, I have no doubt that, over time, property (in the right area) will continue to appreciate. So if you buy: remember that you can trade up if your business grows, and you will have something tangible to pass on to your children.