Participants in a roundtable discussion Friday afternoon said proposed cuts to Medicaid could impact healthcare services throughout New Mexico.
The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act that has been making its way through the U.S. Congress calls for cutting Medicaid funding.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, hosted the roundtable discussion in Albuquerque. He said the purpose of the discussion was so he could gather stories he could take back with him to Washington, D.C.
He said 40% of New Mexicans are enrolled in Medicaid and some of those people could lose coverage under the proposal in the bill.
While people could lose Medicaid coverage, Heinrich said they will still need medical care. That could increase the number of people seeking care at emergency departments, where it is often more expensive.
“You couldn’t design a budget reconciliation package that would be worse for the state of New Mexico,” Heinrich said.
Dr. Damara Kaplan, a urologist at the New Mexico Cancer Center, expressed concerns that loss of Medicaid funding could impact people who are struggling with life-threatening illnesses.
“If patients lose Medicaid, it’s not like they’re not getting care. They’re just going to get care elsewhere, and care becomes more expensive, more fragmented and unpredictable. Patient’s outcomes are going to be much worse if they lose this continuity of care,” she said.
Cheri Brubaker, the Albuquerque Public Schools senior director of nursing services, said schools rely on Medicaid funding to pay for nurses. She said if Medicaid funding is cut and APS isn’t able to pick up the cost, the district could lose 50% of the 135 nurses at the 144 schools.
“It’s still significant, because relying on people that are not trained to take care of these conditions can create more emergencies, more problems,” she said.
Cuts could also lead to hospitals closing in New Mexico. Many of the rural hospitals rely on reimbursements from Medicaid for health care. According to information provided by Heinrich’s office, the proposals in the version of the bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would lead to 14 million people losing insurance and would force hospitals and healthcare providers to “foot the bill of $31 billion in additional uncompensated care costs by 2034.”
Troy Clark, the president and CEO of NM Hospital Association, compared healthcare in New Mexico to a fragile spiderweb.
He said if a hospital closes in Clayton — in the northeast part of the state — the impacts will be felt in Silver City — in the southwest part of New Mexico. Similarly, he said losing providers in Las Cruces could impact Santa Fe.
“No matter where you touch it, the whole thing is going to shake and it’s going to move. It’s made up of patients, it’s made up of families, it’s made up of providers, it’s made up of hospitals. We are so interconnected,” he said.
Heinrich said he is having discussions with Republican senators about how Medicaid cuts could impact their constituents.
One Senator he mentioned that he is meeting with is Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who has in the past expressed opposition to the bill because of the cuts to Medicaid. However, Hawley has also been advocating for the expansion and reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which he got included in the Senate budget reconciliation package. Expanding RECA would allow New Mexicans who have suffered health impacts related to radiation exposure from nuclear weapons testing to receive compensation. It would also help people who worked in uranium mining and milling after 1972.
Heinrich has also advocated for the expansion, but he said even with RECA included in the bill he will not be able to support it.
“I can’t vote for a bill that’s going to cover people I truly care about and work with and know, and at the same time, take health care away from 10 times as many other constituents,” he said. “And so I’m glad he’s working on RECA, but I’m not going to be able to vote for a bill that’s so fundamentally destructive to the state of New Mexico.”
The fallout from nuclear bombs is one example of a legacy of pollution in New Mexico that has impacted people’s health and well-being. People in areas like the Tularosa Basin are more likely to be diagnosed with health conditions linked to radiation exposure.
New Mexico is also impacted by oil and gas emissions, PFAS contamination and abandoned mines — all of which have associated health impacts.
“We need that healthcare infrastructure if we’re going to treat those people with the respect that they deserve,” Heinrich said.
