Realities of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are Taking Hold Across the U.S. and in NM: Realities of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are Taking Hold Across the U.S. and in NM: Part of the federal healthcare program referred to as Obamacare provided guidelines for each state to establish healthcare exchanges. NM was one of the states that 'opted in' and chose to set up an ACA state exchange. Now, several state programs including Minnesota, Maryland, Vermont and Oregon are experiencing problems that affect policy holders. Hawaii completely shut their state exchange down. Here in New Mexico, Blue Cross Blue Shield Here in New Mexico, Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) announced it would pull out of the state health exchange beginning January 1 of 2016. After losing more than $19.2 million, BCBS requested a 51.6 percent average premium increase that was denied. BCBS felt there was no alternative other than to pull out of the state exchange program.

U.S. Marshall Conrad Candelaria provided a moving keynote speech honoring heroes at the New Mexico Business Coalition's annual Heroes luncheon. The event sold out twice, but the Marriott Pyramid came through and made room for everyone. Read the front page ABQ Journal article HERE.

The ABQ Fair Workweek Act will do ZERO Good for Employees and Businesses: Albuquerque City Councilor Ken Sanchez has asked for a fiscal and economic impact analysis to be conducted before further action on the ‘Fair Workweek’ ordinance is taken. That’s good news. Hopefully the council will be able to see that the proposed ordinance will hurt businesses, jobs and our economy. The NMBC will continue working against this ordinance and will monitor the proceedings.