The graying of America has had a significant impact on the affordability of health insurance in New Mexico, where health insurance premiums have more than doubled for some older residents.
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Among
those hardest hit have been older customers of the state's Health
Insurance Alliance (HIA), a program mandated by the state to guarantee
that small businesses can purchase health insurance. Some customers
have seen their premiums double.
Advocates for New Mexico's
burgeoning elderly population are alarmed by the sudden increases. "We
have the fifth fastest-growing elderly population in the nation and
nearly 21 percent of New Mexicans age 60 and older live in poverty,"
says Michelle Lujan Grisham, director of the New Mexico State Agency on
Aging. "I'm worried about age discrimination and the fact that older
people are being priced right out of the market."
Grisham says she fears that the gap
between the insured and uninsured is ever-widening in her state. In
2000, 29 percent of New Mexicans between the ages of 19 to 64 were
uninsured, according to the United States Census Bureau, compared with
a national average of 17 percent. The number of uninsured Nevadans is
likely to continue to climb, given the uncertain national economic
outlook.
According to Grisham, there are currently few
affordable health insurance options for uninsured older New Mexicans.
The main problems are that:
- Those under 64 are too young to qualify for Medicare.
- Many
earn just enough money to prevent them from enrolling in Medicaid, but
their incomes are too low to enable them to afford health insurance
premiums.
- Because of their age, they
are more likely to have pre-existing medical conditions that bar them
from obtaining health insurance from individual health insurers.
Those
who become uninsured when they lose their jobs also find it more
difficult to replace their coverage by acquiring new jobs with
employer-sponsored group health insurance. Grisham says she doesn't
believe competition among commercial insurers can solve the health
insurance affordability and availability problems in her state.
But
there will be some relief for the 80,000 New Mexican seniors who don't
have prescription drug coverage. New Mexico Gov. Gary E. Johnson has
signed legislation will permit New Mexicans age 65 and over to buy
prescription drugs at the discounted price negotiated through a
consolidated purchasing effort for state employees, government
retirees, and public school workers and retirees. That law goes into
effect May 15, 2002. Read Elderly New Mexicans get prescription drug discount . |
