New Mexico health insurance

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status report:
New Mexico state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated New Mexico state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did New Mexico officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (1)

• Steven Pearce

Our
Pick

No (2)

• Martin Heinrich

• Ben Lujan

how healthy is living in New Mexico?

New Mexico has dropped two spots from its 2009 position and is now ranked as the 33rd healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• New Mexico was praised in 2010 for its low levels of binge drinking (12.2 percent of the population), its low rate of preventable hospitalizations, and its decreasing percentage of smokers (down since 1990 from 22.4 to 17.9 percent of the population).
• The rates of deaths due to cancer and cardiovascular disease are also relatively low, at 170.1 deaths and 237.8 deaths per 100,000 population, respectively.
• New Mexico also has high levels of public health care funding, and one of the lowest levels of air pollution in the country.

The bad news:

• New Mexico's challenges include its high rates of uninsured residents and violent crime (619 offenses per 100,000 population), as well as its high geographic disparity (15.7).
• The state's prevalence for obesity has increased over the past five years, from 21.5 percent of the population to 25.5. percent.
• Its already low high school graduation rate has fallen in the past year from 67.3 percent to only 59.1 of ninth graders graduating high school in their intended four years of school.

New Mexico's best and worst category rankings:

• Air pollution – 3rd
• Public health funding ($130 per individual) – 5th
• Deaths due to cancer – 5th
• Early prenatal care – 46th
• High school graduation – 48th
• Children in poverty – 48th
• Uninsured population (22.7 percent) – 49th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on New Mexico.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key New Mexico health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts New Mexico here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for New Mexico, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does New Mexico have a health insurance high risk pool?

New Mexico Medical Insurance Pool
(505) 622-4711

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, New Mexico started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about New Mexico's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in New Mexico

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in New Mexico and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in New Mexico.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's New Mexico health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for New Mexico.

Health insurance plan report cards for New Mexico

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for New Mexico health insurance plan report cards.

New Mexico government health insurance resources

New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Insurance Division – provides convenient access to consumers to reliable insurance products which are underwritten by dependable and financially sound companies. The division strives to ensure that these companies have a proven history of fair and reasonable rates and are represented by trustworthy and qualified agents.

New Mexikids – no cost or low cost health coverage for children under 19 years old. If your household income is less than 185% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, health care services are provided to your child at no cost. If your household income is between 185% - 235% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, some of the health care services your child receives may require that you make a co-payment at the time each service is provided.