Health Care
Making Health Care More Affordable and Accessible for New Mexico Families
Throughout her career in public office, Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish has led the fight to make health care more affordable and accessible for New Mexico families. Insuring more New Mexicans will not only improve the health of those taxpayers, but it will help drive down premium costs for everyone else. As the Chair of Insure New Mexico, Diane fought to expand coverage to every child in New Mexico, making it easier for small business owners to provide coverage for their employees and to improve access to health care facilities in rural New Mexico.
But Diane believes that health care begins with prevention -- through exercise, a balanced diet and preventative medicine. That’s why Diane has led the fight to tackle childhood obesity and has promoted smoking cessation programs and legislation.
Making it Easier for Small Businesses to Provide Coverage to Employees: The majority of New Mexicans work for small businesses, but during these tough economic times, the cost of health insurance is simply too high for many small business owners. That’s why Diane Denish led efforts to attract small businesses into a program that would give them the option of buying health insurance for their employees for $75 a month per worker. Diane also proposed a plan to provide tax credits to small business owners that offer health insurance to employees.
A National Leader on Children’s Health Care Issues: Diane Denish believes that every child in New Mexico should have health insurance, period. She has consistently fought for legislation and programs that help more New Mexico children get the coverage they deserve. And she has earned national recognition for her commitment to children’s health care issues, including the 2004 Child Health Advocate Award by the American Academy of Pediatrics. She was honored to deliver a speech on children’s health care issues at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Promoting Prevention and Healthy Lifestyles: Diane Denish believes that every individual must take responsibility for his or her own health, and that starts by exercising and maintaining a healthy diet. And when New Mexicans are healthier, there are fewer visits to the ER and the doctors, which will help drive down everyone’s premiums. To encourage healthy lifestyles, Diane has proposed a tax credit for employers who provide gym memberships to employees.
Fighting the Epidemic of Childhood Obesity: Both to improve our children’s’ health and to control future costs of health care, Diane believes that we must tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity. To help address this problem, Diane has fought for more gym teachers in our schools and for programs that ensure that children have access to fresh locally-grown produce at school.
