Prayer and Health

At the Governor's Prayer Breakfast this morning (It was two degrees in Santa Fe when it started), Gov. Bill Richardson acknowledged he wasn't supposed to talk about specific issues, but he chuckled and said he was going to anyway. The issue was his health care plan. (See www.capitolreportnm.com for the plan.) By chance, the Governor's plan pitch came with the public unveiling, via a page one story in USA Today, of a federal law prohibiting states from requiring or regulating benefits provided by employers. This law could mean trouble for states including California and New Mexico planning to require employer payments. The law in question is a small part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) which supposedly was reviewed thoroughly last year as part of the work that prepared for the administration's proposal.