Big pool in New Mexico

The New Mexico Business Weekly may have finally gotten a better term than single-payer through my thick skull.

Single-insurer.

That's pretty clear, isn't it? Not so threatening?

The NM Business Weekly's article, "Little-known Health Security Act could make a splash thanks to two studies," explains the difference between Gov. Bill Richardson's compromised and designed to fail "health solutions act" and the real deal, the "Health Security Act":

The most profound difference in the plans lies in the role of private insurers. They would maintain and, presumably, expand their current roles under the Health Solutions plan, while the Health Security Act would relegate them to providing supplemental insurance.

In place of private insurance, Health Security would create a single insurer (supporters don't like the term "single payer") to cover all 1.6 million New Mexicans who are not federal government retirees, active and retired military or tribe members (who could opt in). The single big pool, supporters say, would mean lower insurance costs overall than the dozens of separate insurance pools that exist today.