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SANTA FE — Contractors who want to work for the state next year will have to provide health care coverage for their employees under an order Gov. Bill Richardson was expected to sign this morning.

And by 2010, everyone in the state would be required to have health insurance or show they have the means to fund their own care, under a four-phase plan Richardson will pitch to lawmakers in the 2008 legislative session.

The governor today also is expected to say he wants the Legislature to mandate health insurance companies to spend 85 percent of premiums on direct services to patients, including disease prevention and management.

Officials were still working Wednesday night on the projected costs of the plan.

Richardson's plan also would require insurance carriers to offer coverage to anyone who wants it, and would prohibit them from excluding patients with pre-existing conditions.

The plan is aimed at lowering the number of New Mexicans without health insurance, which totaled 405,000, or 21 percent of the state's population, in 2006. Of the uninsured, 94,000 were children under age 18, according to the state.

Richardson's plan also calls for the creation of an 11-person Health Care Authority. The panel would set affordability guidelines for insurance policies as well as performance standards for insurance companies. It would handle complaints about providers and help those without insurance learn their options. The group also would work to recruit and retain medical professionals.

Richardson administration officials have been working on the plan for months. They say they have already lined up support from community members including officials from Molina Health Care of New Mexico, Lovelace Health System and Presbyterian Health Services and Rep. Brian Moore, a Republican from Clayton.

While lawmakers for years have fretted over the state's chronically high uninsured rate, not all are convinced Richardson's package is the solution - or even a sincere attempt to solve the state's health care problems.

Senate Minority Whip Leonard Lee Rawson suggested the governor is simply looking for national attention for his ideas as part of his presidential campaign.

"I'm not sure it's a serious proposal," said Rawson, a Las Cruces Republican. "I think it's all about positioning himself for a national campaign."

Politics aside, however, Rawson said he worries the plan could discourage insurance companies from doing business in New Mexico.

In particular, he's not sure how many insurance companies will be able to spend 85 percent of premiums on direct services to patients, and keep overhead and other costs to just 15 percent.

"We'll have insurance companies say then `We're out of the state,' " he said. "It's a lofty goal and a great sound bite, but I don't think it'll work," Rawson said.

Companies that did stay might have to raise premiums in order to meet expenses, and "that goes back to the problems of being affordable," he said.

Rawson also wondered if Richardson's goal isn't to turn the state's health care system into a single-payer, government system, something state officials denied.

Richardson, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has already set forth his national health care agenda, which includes some of the ideas he's floating to lawmakers here. If elected, the governor also would lower the age of eligibility for Medicare to 55. Richardson also wants to give veterans a card that would allow them to seek health care at the facility of their choice, allow the federal government to negotiate prescription drug prices and give tax breaks to businesses that pay for health insurance coverage.