Families and health professionals gathered at First Choice Clinic Tuesday to fight a legislative movement to cut state Medicaid funding that they say would hurt New Mexico children.
The press conference came after a push by Gov. Gary Johnson to substantially cut Medicaid funding. Johnson vetoed a state budget bill last week on the grounds that it was inflated and not fiscally responsible, largely due to Medicaid spending.
He wrote in a letter to the State House of the Representatives that under his proposal, New Mexico would still have a combined benefits and eligibility package that exceeds federal requirements, allowing it to provide as generous a Medicaid program as surrounding states.
"I am still hopeful a responsible Medicaid fix can be accomplished," he wrote.
Loretta Cordova de Ortega, a UNM Department of Pediatrics professor, said Tuesday that the proposed Medicaid cuts will hurt children in New Mexico whose parents cannot afford health insurance.
Ortega said that by cutting Medicaid across the board about 46,000 children would be left uninsured. She added that children are not covered in the public health system and do not have access to health information or preventative care.
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"My duty as a pediatrician is to help maintain and improve health care in New Mexico, and I'm troubled by the fact that they're trying to cut off the ability to do that," she said.
Lance Chilton, an Albuquerque pediatrician and the New Mexico Pediatric Society president, said New Mexico already leads the nation in percentage of children not covered by health insurance and cutting Medicaid would only exacerbate the problem by leaving 50,000 people uninsured.
"People need to realize that each of these numbers is a real child and that each real child needs real medical care," Chilton said.
He said that the state already has a huge problem with providing preventative health care and, if Medicaid is cut, the problem would sink so far that the system would have a hard time climbing out.
Chilton added that if preventative care isn't available to uninsured children, it would increase the cost for everyone else to treat them in emergency rooms after their conditions had reached critical points.
Health advocates gathered families to speak with reporters about the ramification the legislature would have on them.
Former patient Tawny Dodd said she was benefiting from Medicaid services when she gave birth to her baby prematurely. She described her situation at the time - her husband was a student at the University and they couldn't afford health insurance, but Medicaid allowed her and her baby to recuperate at UNM Hospital.
Dodd said she is not on Medicaid now that her husband has graduated, but the transition time between coverage was very important for her family.
"We would not have made it without Medicaid," Dodd said.
Tammy Bryand said her 2-year-old daughter, Jocelyn Leavitt, has been getting sick every two weeks and the doctors can't figure out what is wrong.
"Without Medicaid she would just be sick and there's nothing I'd be able to do," Bryand said. "I am a single mom and I work. I go to school full-time. There's no way I could afford health insurance."
