Who We Are

Established in 1992, the Health Security for New Mexicans Campaign is a broad and growing coalition of over 170 statewide and local organizations and thousands of individual supporters across the state. Our members and supporters represent diverse interests and include consumer, labor, community, health professional, human rights, faith-based, and environmental organizations; business owners; farmers and ranchers; and groups advocating for low-income New Mexicans and the homeless. Our mission is to establish universal, affordable health care for New Mexico. The lynchpin of the Health Security Plan is a single health coverage network for most New Mexicans — independently run, but publicly accountable and transparent.

The Campaign continually seeks public input on and support for its proposal: the Health Security Plan. As a result, the Health Security Plan has evolved into a New Mexico health care reform solution that is not an imitation of any other state’s proposal or any other country’s system. Legislation to set up the Health Security Plan has been introduced several times in the state legislature, and 37 New Mexico municipalities and counties have passed resolutions in support of Health Security.

Three New Mexico studies (the most recent in 2020) have concluded that the Health Security Plan will cost less than the current system and ensure that nearly everyone in the state has health coverage.

While the Health Security Act has not passed the entire legislature — it was most recently introduced in 2019 and voted unanimously out of committee but was not called to the floor — the legislature has allocated a series of funds to the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance and the Interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee to have experts study portions of the Health Security framework in more detail and outline paths to implementation. This is now being pursued as the Health Cost Drivers Project, whose results will be used to update the Health Security Act and create supporting legislation.

history

  • Since 2003, the Campaign’s membership has grown from 28 organizations to over 170—the largest coalition in the history of our state—and the Health Security Plan is supported by thousands of people throughout the state.

  • Since 2006, 37 counties and municipalities have passed resolutions in support of Health Security, from liberal Santa Fe to conservative Roswell.

  • In 2006, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., completed a study of three health care reform models in New Mexico: two of the models were based on the private insurance system, and the third was based on the Health Security Plan. The study found that only the Health Security Plan would save money.

  • During the development of the federal Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), the Campaign worked with other groups around the country to make sure that waiver language was included in the final law. The Waiver for State Innovation Provision allows states to develop a different paradigm—like the Health Security Plan—to cover the uninsured and control costs.

  • The 2015 Health Security Act was endorsed by the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee. Just one committee vote prevented the bill from going to the Senate floor for a full vote.

  • In 2017 the Health Security Act made it to the House floor.

  • In 2017, the Health Security Plan Analysis Act (a shortened version of the Health Security Act that focused on the fiscal analysis phase)—passed the full House of Representatives.

  • In 2019, a memorial in support of costing out the Health Security Plan passed the full House of Representatives.

  • The 2019 NM legislature set aside funding to undertake a fiscal analysis of the Health Security Plan, which was completed in summer 2020.

  • The 2021 and 2022, the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance conducted studies on global hospital budgets and other health care payment models, as well as additional feasibility analysis of the Health Security Act.

  • In 2024, individual legislators allocated $440,000 of their GRO funds for the Health Cost Drivers Project.

  • In 2025, the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee used part of its $1.4 million budget to continue the Health Cost Drivers Project.

    We continue to move forward toward our goal of putting the Health Security Plan in place!