Columns

The future of health care — or at least how we pay for it — is confusing, to say the least. One question is what happens to state authority under the Obamacare law.
New Mexico contains quite a few mandates — services insurance companies are required to cover.
For example, some years ago a prospective adoptive parent found that state regulations required health insurance for the adopted child, but insurance companies weren’t covering adopted children.
A legislator was asked for help, and a law was enacted to require that coverage. Hence, a mandate.
Current law mandates coverage for mammograms, colorectal screenings and a whole list of other treatments.
Some of them are quite narrowly written — a specific treatment for a specific cancer, for example.
Heartbreaking stories may lie behind some of these provisions — a badly needed treatment denied, a call to a legislator and a new mandate written into law.
Whether mandates add to the cost of insurance can be argued. One side says people should pay for their own routine preventive screenings.
The opposing argument says screenings catch serious health conditions early, saving money because early treatment is so much more cost-effective.

During the last legislative session, a female scribe in the press gallery asked me, “Have you ever noticed that the women say what they need to say and sit down, and the men go on and on?”
I had noticed.
Now, this isn’t true of all legislators. There are a few long-winded women and some men who measure their words. Both chambers have too many lawyers (male) who never tire of exercising their vocal chords, even though everybody else tires of exercising their ear drums.
When the session convenes this week, the Senate will have just six women, the smallest number in a decade, because some bowed out and others lost their races.
The House gained six women, for a total of 25. So if the initial observation holds, House speeches should be shorter and more to the point.
The usual argument about having more women is that many of the issues affect us more, but I argue that women do things differently. We’re inclined to be more collaborative and less competitive.
A businessman once told me that he preferred to hire women. “They’re more loyal,” he said. “Guys are always working deals on the side.”
Other men told me they’d become avid fans of UNM’s Lady Lobo basketball players “because they really play as a team.”

The new municipal/administration building is THE Los Alamos citizens’ building! As such, it should not be a memorial to any one person, dead or alive.
While a few previous, and some current, councilors doggedly refused to allow LA citizens to vote on it, the building is still the citizens’ building and not the council’s building.
If a nickname is needed, make something like “The GRT (Golden Revenue Trove or Gross Receipt Tax-windfall) Building” as that is what enabled it.
 Councilor Berting put forth the request that the building be named in memory of Jeannette O. Wallace.
Berting insisted by her actions that this be the honoree the administrator’s committee focused on even though several councilors argued that the public should be pulsed more generally about any naming.
I voiced, during “public comment,” that the motion had the appearance of council’s pre-emptive decision in the naming. Since the committee is to hear from the public and report back to council at the beginning of February, scrutiny will, by sheer time constraint, be restricted.
There has been plenty of time in the last year to address this “naming” business without rushing; yet, we are now being asked to do a quickie.

Anyone who’s put a loved one to rest knows that death is not cheap. According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the average adult funeral cost $6,560 in 2009 (their most current data).
That doesn’t include such common add-ons as a cemetery plot, headstone, flowers, obituaries and limousine, which can add thousands to the bill.
Because death is a frequently avoided topic, many people aren’t armed with information about the many variables — and costs — involved in planning a funeral.
Thus, just when survivors are grieving and most vulnerable, they’re bombarded by decisions that must be made quickly, often without even knowing what their loved one would have wanted.
The key message for the living is to decide on preferred funeral arrangements ahead of time and to convey those wishes to your family – ideally in your will.
Another important lesson: Know your legal rights and what funeral-related goods and services cost so you — or your survivors — don’t feel pressured into buying things you don’t want or need. The Federal Trade Commission oversees “The Funeral Rule,” which regulates how funeral providers must deal with consumers. Among its provisions: