Luján hears health-care woes

SANTA FE (KRQE) - Health-care reform is at the top of the president's list, and on Thursday it was Rep. Ben Ray Luján hearing about the costs and problems of the current system.

This meeting wasn't designed for citizens to weigh in on the president's plan for more government involvement in healthcare.

Instead it was a chance for them to tell the New Mexico Democrat what they think needs to be done to improve the healthcare system.

Althea McLuckie's daughter is playing a waiting game for reliable medical equipment.

"My daughter depends on a feeding pump," McLuckie said. "We have gone through 11 feeding pumps in the last month because we cannot get reliable ones.

"I have been feeding with a syringe instead of a feeding pump for the last two weeks because the pump that was supposed to be on its way to us has never materialized.”

Dr. Kristine McCoy runs a rural health clinic and said problems in the system have contributed to two deaths in the past week.

"There is a case of a young man who unfortunately passed away last week, 38 years old, colon cancer," she said. "No one would see him except for UNM.

"UNM had a waiting list of about six weeks. By the time he got to UNM he got started on chemotherapy and died with in a matter of days.”

On Wednesday a woman died in McCoy's clinic. She says they couldn't save her because the clinic doesn't have full emergency resources.

McCoy said the equipment and training are too expensive for the small facility.

Diabetes patient Maureen Dijanni also knows about the system being too expensive. She said years of not being able to get insurance are straining her family's finances.

"It drained all our savings," she said. "We had to go into our IRA just to get my medications.

"My one medication is $650 for one month.”

Luján said he asking New Mexicans what they need from their health-care provider to assure everyone can get affordable insurance that will meet their needs.

"We will continue to have conversations with constituents throughout the process and even thereafter because as we move towards health-care reform there is always room for improvement," he said. "We always are going to have to look at those individual stories to see how we can help them as well."

Other members of the group urged Luján to think about how people will get treatment once some type of reform is put in place. They said the state has a critical shortage of primary care physicians calling that a huge problem that needs to be looked at.

The president has asked for a healthcare reform bill by the end of the year.