By Matthew Reichbach
The top story out of Washington D.C. continues to be the haphazard efforts to slash government services, which has left many worried about the future of the country’s safety net.
Included are cuts to Medicaid, which would not only affect millions of Americans, but also would have a massive impact on state budgets throughout the country, particularly in New Mexico, which has the highest number of residents who get health insurance through Medicaid.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appeared on CBS News to discuss this proposed cut.
“It means that more than 800,000 New Mexicans would be under- or uninsured completely, so we ripped those healthcare benefits [away],” Lujan Grisham said about what it would mean if the House Republican budget plan becomes law.
Lujan Grisham also said because the insurance industry is connected, this would impact those who aren’t on Medicaid.
“This cut is actually a health care tariff to everybody else. That means your health insurance premiums go up, that means your co-pays go up,” Lujan Grisham said. ”That means Medicare covers less, that means your prescription drug costs go up. That means no one has primary care docs.”
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez also spoke out against Medicaid cuts last week. Leger Fernandez spoke from El Centro Family Health in Española.
“Many clinics that look like [El Centro] are in Republican areas, they’re in Pennsylvania, in Texas, in Iowa, they are across this country,” she said. “This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, it’s an issue of keeping our population safe and doing it in an incredibly cost effective manner […] If you believe in babies and family values, you should believe in making sure those babies are born healthy.”
Odds and Ends
All three members of the U.S. House from New Mexico will attend President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress this week. (Note: It’s technically not a State of the Union)
Leger Fernandez told ABC News that she would attend and said it was an opportunity for Democratic women to highlight the impact of Trump and Elon Musk’s actions over the last six weeks.
“We want to make sure that the world knows about the betrayal of America’s women to benefit billionaires that’s going on,” she said in the interview.
U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury was on a call from womensforward.us where she discussed Democrats’ plans to blunt the moves by the Trump administration. One activist on the call gave the bullet points on what Stansbury, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, said.
For example: “[Stansbury] said that all 215 Dems are communicating on a scale they never have before and the senators are doing the same. She said they are using their voting power and using actions to put sand in the gears and be unruly even if we’re not seeing or understanding at all.”
An effort by U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Tim Kaine of Virginia, both Democrats, to end President Donald Trump’s declaration of an “energy emergency” failed on a party-line vote last week, with the Republican majority defeating the effort.
Trump’s energy emergency declaration is another way to promote fossil fuel production and curb the growth of clean energy such as solar and wind power.
In his role as ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Heinrich joined with U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-California, the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee to demand more transparency from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on his department’s “action plan” on energy and public lands. The letter says that the Interior Department was a week overdue on providing the plan to the public.
Thank you to you and the NM legislators countering Trumps terrible moves. And to the Governor for speaking out.
This is all California policies that are failing them
Well how does it feel to all of you who voted for him?
I am proud of all of you! Keep fighting every step of the way until many of the disastrous members of the cabinet and federal agencies are defeated! Great explanations on what is realy going on!!
New Mexico is last in everything . Maybe our elected officials should try to make NM great again instead of stoking division . Or better yet, let’s vote them all out !!
So, what are your great ideas to improve New Mexico’s standing? Almost one in five (18 percent) of all New Mexicans live in poverty. That rate is significantly higher for all Native Americans in our state, at 31 percent. Our median income is only $32,973 A more wealthy state like Illinois has only 12% of citizens living in poverty and a median income of $42,068. The percentage of New Mexicans age 65 years old and over in New Mexico was 19.2 percent in 2022, higher than the national average of 17.3 percent. Many (most?) of these folks are retired and a good portion need to access publicly funded support services too. So, our ability to use taxes to fund needed services is less and proportionately more people need public services just to survive.
Our state population is only growing by 0.2% a year so counting on growth to help get us out of poverty seems unlikely.
The federal government owns 34.7% of New Mexico’s land.so that cuts off a huge area which does not generate property taxes. Less than half of the land of New Mexico is owned by private citizens or companies (46.5%).
Trump and his minions are busy cutting funds that our state desperately needs. Without Medicare, our hospital emergency departments are going to get overrun with people needing care who have no where else to go but without any insurance to cover the cost. By law, Emergency Departments cannot turn people away who needs care. So, uninsured folks being seen there will drive up costs for everyone as the hospitals will have to raise what they charge insured patients. Insurance companies will see that and jack up rates and perhaps increase deductibles. Medicare gets those folks to clinics and urgent care centers and frees up Emergency Department staff to deal with actual emergencies. That is what we are facing with these cuts and that is what our Governor and Congressional delegation are trying to prevent. What you are doing to prevent these cuts?
New Mexico is in big trouble and needs big ideas. But funding big ideas when federal funding is actually getting cut by the feds? I am not sure how that will work. But, we are all ears to hear how you think we can make New Mexico greater. I am not going to say “great again” because I think what we have here in New Mexico is pretty special, despite the poverty and funding woes.
lol! That’s a funny take on this article.
Please Americas save US. You guys voted for an evil now time for you to help preople who do not have voice.
“Stoking division?” The above are very good arguments for increasing Medicare and Medicaid, regardless of who’s making them. According to this, 800,000 New Mexicans are at risk of being DIVIDED from their mortal coils if Trump and the Republicans get their tax cut. You seem STOKED. Is that what you want to put your name to, in a public comment? Not your best work, Mr. Trash.
Sure let’s put in some GD republicans that can come in here and rip everything apart with no plans to fix anything but their finanacial standing. But no matter – this is a wonderful way to enact a massacre- on social security Mr. Trask? Have anybody in a rest home? Obviously you have not been hit yet… don’t feel all alone – it WILL happen and you will be singing a different tune then.
MLG a now an expert on Healthcare? I seem to recall some of her last state healthcare concerns involved shutting almost everything down (not including her jewelry stores and other nepotistic displays of “leadership”).
Fraud in Medicare will be weeded out, and those in true need will continue to receive benefits.
I suspect the idea of fraud being weeded out is a threat to her.
News flash Michelle, my health insurance premiums already go up every year, and it’s already challenging to find a primary care doctor in this state.
But I know you don’t care about those of us who are actually gainfully employed and aren’t in that large percentage of our state’s population that receives government assistance. We’re a bother as far as you’re concerned.
“Actually gainfully employed” like me Mr. Richter??? I am a full time employed, single white female with no children, and I actually can only afford health insurance because of the Affordable Care Act. My necessary prescription rescue inhaler has already been dropped from coverage and the price has doubled thanks to the slashing from Donald Trump. You absolutely don’t speak for those of us who very much are gainfully employed and need the insurance provided through medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Our Governor does care about us – she’s working to protect me and my health insurance.
It’s not divisive politics or the stigma of only those who are unemployed benefit from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. I’m a full time 45 hours a week employee, single white female, with no children and the only way I can afford health insurance is through the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to the cuts Trump has already made, my prescription rescue inhaler is no longer covered under Medicaid and has doubled in price. The proposed additional cuts in the already US House approved budget bill means my insurance premiums go up another $2020 and even less will be covered. The Governor and our Senators and Representatives are speaking up for us – for me, and they’re the only ones working to protect us.