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State Should Shoulder Costs of Indigent Care

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 December 2005, 12:00 CST

After years of placing Band-Aids on an indigenthealth care system that's bleeding red ink, University of New Mexico Hospital is asking the state -- rather than Bernalillo County property owners -- to help stop the hemorrhaging.

A recent audit estimates the hospital's cost of treating those who can't pay for health care will hit $131 million this year, with the hospital having to eat about $45 million of that. And that figure for unreimbursed health care provided by the hospital is projected to ramp up to $80 million by 2009.

UNMH currently receives about $63 million from Bernalillo County property-tax receipts for indigent and low-income patients. And while the hospital says Bernalillo County residents account for the biggest share of uncompensated care, Valencia, Sandoval and Santa Fe county residents are a car or ambulance ride away, and the hospital's Lifeguard choppers fly in trauma patients from all corners of the state. UNMH is New Mexico's only Level One trauma center, and many specialized treatments are not available anywhere else in the state.

There's also the cost of providing health care to illegal immigrants. A new pot of federal money designated to offset that expense will be channeled through the state Health and Human Services Department. UNMH is negotiating with state officials to claim its share of that funding.

Gov. Bill Richardson's mantra "every New Mexican deserves health care" is admirable, but the bottom line is someone has to pay. Dozens of proposals were floated during Monday's daylong health care summit, ordered by the governor in response to concerns about providing health care to those who can't pay for it.

So far one proposal stands out. Instead of relying on Bernalillo County property owners to fund its indigent health care, university administrators are proposing a statewide quarter-cent gross- receipts tax for hospitals.

The tax would raise an estimated $110 million a year and spread the cost of indigent health care across the state, the same geography that feeds UNMH's patient base.

That's a fairer distribution of costs than expecting Bernalillo County property owners alone to keep supplying Band-Aids to a bleeding system.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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