State must fill in healthcare gaps

During the October special session, New Mexico’s Legislature stepped up to fill in coverage gaps temporarily. However, some current budget proposals have critical gaps, leaving premiums, copays and deductibles unaffordable for families. Tens of thousands of New Mexicans are likely to lose their health insurance and the healthcare they depend on.

New Mexico did not choose these cuts, but the consequences will be catastrophic if the state falls short in stabilizing health care coverage in the face of these federal changes. For patients, coverage losses mean medications delayed or skipped, mental health care interrupted, preventive visits missed, and manageable conditions turning into emergencies.

For the health care system, it means emergency departments used as primary care, safety net clinics stretched thinner, and longer wait times for everyone — insured and uninsured alike.

For rural and frontier New Mexico, where a clinic or hospital may be the only point of care for hundreds of miles, the potential consequences are especially dire. When coverage erodes in these communities, health care providers operating on thin margins face mounting uncompensated care.

Critical services — labor and delivery, oncology, behavioral health — are often first on the chopping block. This instability also harms the broader economy when hospitals and clinics must freeze hiring or cannot afford to keep providers, and when workers with uncontrolled health conditions become less productive or are forced to leave the workforce altogether.

One important step that policymakers should take to meet this moment is to fully leverage the Health Care Affordability Fund by dedicating the revenue from the health insurance premium surtax that supports it entirely to improving coverage affordability, as originally intended. The affordability fund was created by state legislation in 2021 to use money generated within the health care system to directly improve coverage affordability, particularly for low- and middle-income New Mexicans, and thereby bring down health care costs throughout the entire system.

Since the fund’s creation, the state has seen record increased BeWell enrollment for four consecutive years and saved millions for small businesses. The fund has even been expanded to assist state employees with low incomes and National Guard members. The Health Care Affordability Fund has given New Mexico one of the most effective tools in the nation for improving health care affordability, and fully leveraging it as intended can prevent coverage losses and keep families connected to the care they need.

New Mexicans cannot afford delay, and New Mexico cannot afford to turn people away from care. Lawmakers must act immediately to protect health care coverage and dedicate the entire revenue coming from the health insurance surtax toward leveraging the Health Care Affordability Fund for our families. And New Mexicans must raise their voices — call, email, and show up at the Roundhouse to demand that our healthcare lifeline is preserved. The time to act is now.