A bill aimed at compensating oilfield workers and their next of kin for uninsured medical costs related to air pollution and heat-related illnesses has been introduced by a first-term congressman from New Mexico.
Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez said Wednesday that his bill would grant oil and gas companies across the nation a trust to reimburse workers for health care costs related to methane- and smog-related illnesses, including respiratory illnesses such as asthma. It said that it was content that obliged to pay to.
Workers are eligible to seek reimbursement for costs not covered by private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, he said. A full draft of Wednesday’s bill was not immediately available.
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Mr. Vazquez said the proposal grew out of concerns he heard from oilfield workers in southeastern New Mexico and his views on the huge profits and executive pay of big oil companies. New Mexico is the second largest oil producer in the country after Texas.
“If you’re a Hobbes or Carlsbad energy worker and you have a child with asthma, you’re going to benefit from this law,” Vazquez said.
A pump jack works in a field near Lavington, New Mexico, on April 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
He said annual contributions by energy companies to the health care trust should equal the compensation of the 10 highest-paid employees.
The bill marks a shift away from Mr. Vazquez’s unrestricted support for the oil industry under his predecessor, Republican Yvette Heller, and his criticism of energy exploration policies under the Biden administration.
Vazquez said he wants Democrats to take control of the congressional districts, which stretch from the U.S. border with Mexico to Albuquerque in 2022, under newly created congressional districts that divide New Mexico’s major oil-producing regions into three constituencies. moved down. Republicans are challenging the redistricting in state district court.
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At a rally in Hobbes, Vazquez joined defenders of the immigrant rights group Somos un Pueblo Unido to hear testimony in Spanish from oil workers and their spouses about their dissatisfaction with working conditions. He announced the details of the Health Compensation Bill.
“It’s really heartbreaking because we’re still affected by this industry and by companies that don’t pay the price they deserve because it’s a fair system,” Vazquez said in Spanish. “Today, we ask for your support in bringing the bill forward.”
Vazquez said the bill was modeled on a compensation program for miners disabled by black lung disease under a 1969 law.
