The New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance recently announced that premiums will increase by an average of 24.4 percent for residents covered by the state’s BeWell NM plan.


“Despite the rate increase, I can assure you that the rates for all insurance companies are actuarially sound, non-discriminatory and transparent,” OSI Superintendent Alice Kane said in a prepared statement.


Transparent … is she kidding? Nothing about this process is at all transparent. I certainly don’t claim to have a handle on it. But, as best as I understand it, here’s what happened.


In July, 2025 Congress passed HR1, formerly known as the Big Beautiful Bill. It will reduce federal spending on health care by about $1.15 trillion over the next decade. That is the largest cut in the history of the Medicaid and Medicare programs, and shifts the burden to the states.


New Mexico, which was the only state with a Republican governor to sign on to the Affordable Care Act when it was passed, was also the only state to respond to HR1 by fully replacing the federal tax credits that expired in 2025.


The Legislature held a special session in October to free up $162 million, then passed legislation during the regular session to add another $366 million to the Health Care Affordability Fund.


“Our state Legislature made nation-leading investments over the past year to keep health care coverage affordable for New Mexicans amid federal chaos. Yet, the OSI approved an increase of nearly 10 percent above the national average,” complained House Finance Committee Chairman Nathan Small.


The problem, Kane said, is that New Mexico has “uniquely comprehensive benefits.” Right. If we would just kick a few more people off the system this would all work out actuarially, where it really matters.


The Affordable Care Act isn’t working. It’s estimated that our largest health insurance companies have raked in more than $9 trillion in revenue since its passage. That's way too much of our health care budget going to pencil pushers who don’t provide health care.


The ACA was an attempt to provide universal care while still staying within the framework of the free market. But, it didn’t account for the greed.


And, Republicans are no closer to announcing their health care plan than they were when Barack Obama was in office and they were clamoring for “repeal and replace” without any agreement on how to replace it. Now, they want us to believe that $1.15 trillion in cuts will only impact unemployed slackers living in their parents’ basement.


It’s time to acknowledge that other nations have it right. Public health is not a commodity to be bought and sold at whatever price the market will bear. It is a vital service that the state must provide to ensure the common good.


Winston Churchill gets credit for the famous quote, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing … after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” We ought to be getting there soon when it comes to the delivery of health care.


Walter Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com

The Second Congressional District, which has been held since 2023 by former Las Cruces City Council member Gabe Vasquez, is one of seven Democratic districts listed as lean Democratic.

Republicans held the seat for 38 of the 42 years following the death of Harold Runnels. Democrats in the New Mexico Senate tipped the scales with redistricting following the 2020 Census. The new map broke up the Republican stronghold in the southeast corner of the state known as Little Texas, where longtime representative and now director of the Bureau of Land Management Steve Pearce made his fortune servicing the oil industry.

District 1, which had covered the northern part of the state, now drops down into Roswell, Clovis and Portales. District 2 still has Carlsbad and Hobbs, but now stretches up into Albuquerque.

And so, while the rest of the nation has been engaged in a gerrymandering war started by Texas at the request of the president and then spreading from there, we could only watch. Our three seats had already been secured. Maybe.

Vasquez defeated incumbent Yvette Herrell in a close race, with just 50.3 percent of the vote in 2022. His margin of victory against Harrell was larger in 2024 despite the fact that Donald Trump was on top of the ticket and won the district.

This will be the first time since Pearce left office that Herrell won’t be the Republican candidate. She lost an even closer election in 2018 to Xochitl Torres Small before coming back in 2020 to defeat Torres Small.

Greg Cunningham, a former police officer and Marine Corps veteran, will be the Republican candidate this year. And, according to a recent story by The New Mexico Political Report, the race should be tight again.

They note that voter registration margins for Democrats have remained strong in Districts 1 and 3, but have fallen in CD2. There were 178,414 registered Democrats when Vasquez ran for the first time in 2022. There has been about a 3 percent drop in registrations since then, according to the report.

“While Democrats in CD 1 and CD 3 are sitting on comfortable leads, the cushion in CD 2 has become smaller,” the report said. “With the party base shrinking and independent voters on the rise, this race may be a toss-up rather than a sure thing.”

Or, more likely, it’s somewhere in between. Vasquez has the power of the incumbency in a district where incumbents have won 17 of the 20 races in which they were on the ballot since the new district was formed in 1983. But, two of those losses have come in the last four elections.

I’m not taking sides in this column, but I am rooting for a competitive race. The overwhelming majority of House elections are now decided in the primary. The Cook Political Report has 366 of the 435 seats listed as solidly Republican or Democrat. That can’t be healthy for our democracy.


Walter Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com