New Mexico legislature approves bills to support rural health care, take out food assistance

Santa Fe, NM – Santa Fe, NM (AP) – New Mexico legislators moved quickly Thursday during a special legislative session to support the financing of food assistance and rural health care in response to the discounts of President Donald Trump to federal spending for medicaid and nutrition programs.

The legislature led by Democrats has sent a burst of bills to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham which include more than $ 16 million to maintain food aid within the framework of the additional nutritional aid and additional funds to strengthen food banks, because the federal government ends the admissibility to many non-citizens and changes the calculations of others.

“We have to act to make sure that new menxicans are not hungry with instant changes at the federal level,” said Democrat Senator George Muñoz de Gallup.

Additional $ 50 million would help support medical services in rural health clinics and hospitals that are strongly dependent on Medicaid.

Republicans of the legislative minority voted in unison against spending provisions, arguing that major Medicaid changes are still far away and that the New Mexico should focus on reducing errors in distribution of benefits.

At the same time, the Democrats and certain GOP legislators voted to reimburse subsidies to health insurance on the exchange of affordable health care of the new-mexic in the event that federal credits are authorized to expire. Federal subsidies are a major point of collision of the budgetary confrontation in Washington which caused the federal government on Wednesday.

In a press release, Lujan Grisham said she would sign the invoices to protect families from the lack of insurance and ensure that health services are provided in small communities.

Many federal changes on health care as part of Trump’s major bill did not have entered before 2027 or later, and the Democratic legislators of the New Mexico have recognized that their bills are only a temporary bandage.

“Some of the most important (federal) cuts are delayed for a few years, and these are deeply significant,” said state representative Nathan Small de Las Cruces, main godfather of the spending bill. “I want to make sure that we all think, not hundreds of millions, but billions of dollars in Medicaid support reduced to our state.”

Trump’s major bill causes urgent action in several democratic states, but not in republican states.

“These are temporary solutions,” said House President of the Democratic State, Javier Martínez. “These are insurmountable holes so that any state can plug.”

New Mexico legislators have approved a rapid infusion of public spending for SNAP food aid for elderly beneficiaries.

Almost a quarter of new-mexic residents receive food assistance by Snap, making it a large line of defense against hunger.

Food banks obtain a bump of $ 8 million in direct support, under the bill. And $ 2 million are devoted to the replenishment of pantry in universities and public schools.

Trump’s major bill expands the requirements of the work and the declaration of the SNAP participants, ends the eligibility for many non-citizens and changes the profits.

Trump’s big bill puts aside $ 50 billion over five years for hospitals, suppliers and rural clinics – but that does not compensate for significant reductions.

The issues are raised to new-mexic, where around 38% of residents count on Medicaid. And state legislators – Republicans and Democrats – warn against a rural health care crisis while new -mexic to keep health professionals and keep clinics and open hospitals.

The Senator of the Pat Woods State, a republican of the poorly populated eastern plains of the State, of the co -derived modifications of rural health care subsidies aimed at strengthening existing health services in clinics and rural hospitals. A vote of 64-3 of the House sent the bill to the governor on Thursday.

“We are trying to find a way to finance and keep some of these open clinics. What will happen in the future? Who devil knows,” Woods told a panel of state legislators. “What worries me is to keep these clinics and hospitals open until dust sets in.”

The legislators also voted to reserve $ 17 million to ensure that the subsidies do not travel the scholarship of the Act respecting affordable new-mexical care.

This initiative would also extend insurance grants to middle income residents whose profits are equal or exceed 400% of the level of federal poverty – around $ 128,000 per year for a family of four.

The senator of the Democratic State, Carrie Hamblen de Las Cruces, said that insurance subsidies will help avoid a “perfect storm of inconfordability”, warning that the increase in insurance rates threatens to undermine participation in exchange and worsen things.

In addition, legislators approved $ 6 million in public funding for public broadcasting stations – including $ 430,000 for five tribal stations struck by the financing of the public distribution company by the Congress and Trump. Federal subsidies approved at stations for the current federal budget year were recovered, under a bill signed by Trump in July.

Another bill awaiting the governor’s signing would give the New Mexico Health Department to the decision-making authority concerning the vaccinations of adults and childhood and purchasing state vaccinations.