New Mexico Health Insurance
New Mexico’s health status
New Mexico is one of the states that have shown the most improvement on health, health care, health insurance and health policies. After being ranked as one the bottom 10 states throughout the 90’s in America’s Health Rankings, New Mexico has turned things around and in the past five years, has managed to raise and improve its health status. This year it was ranked at the 29th healthiest state in the country, its peak position in twenty years. Two important key factors helped New Mexico improve from its 38th ranking spot last year: In the past year, the incidence of infectious disease declined from 12.9 to 10.1 cases per 100,000 population, and the percentage of children in poverty decreased from 23.2 percent to 18.1 percent of persons under age 18.
There are still things to work on in New Mexico, to maintain the positive tendencies going on for this state. Some of the key issues to work on are, among others, the high and increasing rate of uninsured population (up to 22.7% this year, it’s the second highest percentage in the nation), a low high school graduation rate (only about 65.4% of incoming ninth graders graduate within four years), one of the country’s highest violent crime rates at 664 offenses per 100,000 population and a high premature death rate (with 8,435 years of potential life lost before age 75 per 100,000 population). New Mexico ranks lower for health determinants than for health outcomes, indicating that overall healthiness may decline over time.
Some good news for the population in New Mexico, the rate of cardiovascular and cancer-related deaths have both lowered this year as compared to last. Other great features of this state are the second lowest levels of air pollution (at only 7.2 micrograms of fine particulate per cubic meter), the tenth lowest prevalence of binge drinking (12.7% percent of New Mexicans). Also, having a low percentage of preventable hospitalizations, and an average ready primary care is good as well.
Despite having one of the best public health funding in the nation (with a whooping $132 per person, an amount that has only increased in the past couple of years), it’s extremely alarming how the percentage of population that lacks Health Insurance coverage is increasing as well, and is now the second worst in the country. Accessibility is a key issue to work on with New Mexico, because despite the strong funding, and good ready primary care, less and less people are having access to this with every passing year. There is definitely hope for this state, and well, there are few states that have shown as much improvement as New Mexico has for the past year. State Authorities need to continue this great effort, so the population of New Mexico can have better access to health.
New Mexico health insurance information
In New Mexico, 77.3% of the citizens in New Mexico have Health Insurance. Despite the strong government funding, this percentage is the second lowest in the nation, which means that although New Mexico has worked hard towards offering an accessible health plan to its citizens, they need to revise their plans and access, because with 22.7% of the population in New Mexico having no Health Insurance, a percentage that seems to be increasing, things are in need of improvement. The percentage of employers offering health insurance to employees is okay, with 51.2% percent of employers offering health Insurance plans, and this percentage has been going up since 2003, a good thing. About 78.9% of workers take the Health Insurance plans offered by their employers.
With the strong public health funding in New Mexico, the state has an okay rate of primary care physicians for the population, with 113.4 physicians per 100,000 population. New Mexico’s health care system could be in a better position within the country if the accessibility problem that it seems to have can be eradicated. The percentage of the New Mexico population that could get medical care when needed is 85.1%. The patients served by FQHCs as a percent of population under 200% FPL stands at 30.2%.
If coverage has been denied for you, there are still some options you can check:
Best health plans in New Mexico (according to US News)
The prestigious US News ranks yearly the best Health Plans in the country, polling and evaluating consumer assessment, prevention, and treatment offered by all plans. They gather information and rank the results, nation-wide and state-wide, showing on their results the best plans available for New Mexico as well. The Rankings reflect results of consumer surveys and success in preventing and treating illness compared with average health plan.
Not only they rank Commercial Plans, they also rank Medicare or Medicaid plans, covering and evaluating as many plans as possible. If you want to browse their list of best-of, please go to the US News Health Plans Search site.
Get involved
If you are concerned about New Mexico’s health care issues and want to speak out, your safest bet is to contact your federal official, either via phone or fax. Postal Mail is not recommended, since it takes too long, and e-mail might not be seen. Also, make sure you communicate with the right Member of the Senate and/or Congress.
If you want more guidance and tips on how to contact and communicate with your representatives, there are various sites on the internet that can help on how to contact your elected officials.
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| Contact the White House PHONE: toll free 1-800-671-7887 (ask for the Comment Line) State officials:
| Recent New Mexico health insurance newsHealth Insurance is always a hot topic for discussion, since it involves the citizens of New Mexico and their welfare. Here are some of the latest news and updates on the current issues and news related to Health and Health Insurance for New Mexico: |
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