WhatIfYouKnew

What If You Knew - NM

Supporting the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign

What if you knew...

That you cannot choose your own doctor under most health insurance plans in New Mexico.
That you cannot choose which hospital you go to under most health insurance plans in New Mexico.
That your doctor is limited to what the insurance company approves when deciding on your treatment plan for dealing with your
health issue.
That health insurance plans never pay the amount listed on your bill to physicians.*
That health insurance plans never pay the amount listed on your bill for medical services.*

What if you knew...

That there is a different kind of plan for health care coverage in New Mexico, it is called The Health Security Act, and that it will
save us all money while providing coverage for all New Mexicans. (Our current insurance company based system leaves over
435,000 New Mexicans without health care coverage!)
That under the Health Security Act you can choose any physician in New Mexico. (You can go out of state if you need to.)
That under the Health Security Act you can choose any hospital in New Mexico. (You can go out of state if you need to.)
That the Health Security Act will not be profit based. The objective will be to efficiently pay your health care expenses.
That the Health Security Act has been studied twice by companies contracted by the New Mexico State Legislature and that they
both found that the Health Security Act will save money over how we contract for our health care coverage today. In addition the
Health Security Act is less expensive than any of the proposed reform systems that have been proposed over the last fifteen years.
That the Health Security Act bill that will be heard in the Legislature in this session has a "fail safe" provision. The first year of the
Health Security Act is a full workup of all of the agencies that will be involved and all of the services that will be covered. When
that work is done the Health Security Act cannot proceed without approval by the New Mexico State Legislature. There is no safer
plan because no other plan being considered offers a system test prior to implementation.
That for over 100 years and specifically for over the last 35 years we in the US have been trying to reduce our health care costs.
All other industrialized countries in the world have come up with systems very similar to the Health Security Act, it is time for us to
bring health care coverage to all of our citizens.
That internationally our health care results are not as good as countries that have systems similar to the Health Security Act.

What you can do...

Notes:

* My physician is required by the insurance company to bill $360 for each doctor's visit however he is only reimbursed $60.

* An MRI that my wife had was quoted as $2,500 but billed to insurance as $1,400, so what is the real cost?