With the 30-day legislative session nearly half over, the governor's big health coverage bill had yet to clear its first committee — and that's in the historically friendly House.

If it manages to reach the Senate, it's likely to be greeted by a chorus of skepticism there as well.

Gov. Bill Richardson has asked lawmakers to approve sweeping changes aimed at extending health coverage to the roughly one-fifth of New Mexicans who are uninsured.

He grumbles that while he has compromised on his plan, lawmakers who prefer other alternatives have not.

Legislators, meanwhile, are feeling the squeeze.

"It's just push, push, push on all of us, without really knowing what we're doing," House Health and Government Affairs Chairwoman Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, complained at a committee meeting.

Her committee on Tuesday approved one of the alternatives: Creation of a Health Care Authority that would, by next January, develop a plan for "accessible and affordable" health care for all New Mexicans.

That bill has another committee stop, in House Appropriations and Finance, before it would reach the full House for a vote.

The governor "will not agree to yet another study of the issue. It has been studied to death," spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said in a statement posted on the governor's Web site.

Richardson's plan is much more comprehensive: Requiring New Mexicans to be insured and making coverage more accessible through insurance reforms, expanding government programs and creating a fund that employers who don't insure their workers would pay into. An authority would oversee the system.

Ongoing negotiations between the administration and health care advocates have produced a bill that contains some compromises — on the makeup of the authority, for example.

Faced with criticism that the governor would have too much control over the system, Richardson has agreed to a 10-member authority board, with half the members appointed by the Legislature and half by the governor.

"We have been as open as we possibly can to amendment," Human Services Secretary Pam Hyde, who is at the center of the talks, told the House committee.

Stewart suggested it was time to stop negotiating and start voting. "I think we need to stop trying to make the bill something we all agree on, and move on it," she said.

The committee was to debate the latest version of the bill today.

In the Senate, majority Democrats are split on what to do this year about health coverage, and leaders of both parties said they're worried about money.

Mathematica Policy Research Inc., which has been studying various reform proposals for the Legislature, reported last month that the projected additional cost of Richardson's proposal over a five-year period was $72 million.

But Senate Finance Chairman John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, questions the Mathematica figures and says there's no good data on the cost.

"I think there's a great deal of concern around the cost," agreed Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell. Lawmakers are being asked to fund other expensive proposals, including an overhaul of the public school funding formula, he said.

"We have to pay the bills and we have to balance the budget and we cannot deficit spend," said Senate Republican Leader Stuart Ingle of Portales.




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