By Kelsey McCowan Heilman, New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and Nick Estes, New Mexico Voices for Children
Earlier this month, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez announced that New Mexico will accept federal funding to expand Medicaid eligibility for adults to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). This is a critical decision for the 135,000 New Mexicans who are uninsured now and will be newly eligible for health coverage beginning January 1, 2014. It’s also a welcome relief for nearly 40,000 enrollees in the State Coverage Initiative program – a limited health insurance program for adults scheduled to end this year. The Medicaid expansion will pump billions in federal dollars into New Mexico’s economy. In fact, as previously reported on this blog, the federal infusion generates so much revenue that New Mexico comes out ahead on the expansion – to the tune of a $500 million net general fund bump.
Governor Martinez was the second Republican Governor to embrace the Medicaid expansion, following Nevada. Arizona and North Dakota quickly followed suit. Like Governor Brewer in Arizona, Martinez was quick to say that this decision hinges on the federal government keeping its promise to pay for 90% of expansion costs, even after 2020. Fortunately, history strongly suggests that will happen: in the 50-year history of the Medicaid program, Congress has never changed the federal funding formula. And Medicaid is enormously popular with the public – a 2011 Kaiser poll found that a majority of Americans oppose cuts to Medicaid as a way to reduce the deficit. That number grows to 70% when people are told the proposed cut would result in more uninsured people without healthcare services. This kind of popularity is powerful protection against federal cuts.
In New Mexico, state policymakers, advocates and other stakeholders now turn to the daunting task of converting eligibility into enrollment and access. Between the Medicaid expansion, the Exchange, and the population of currently eligible but unenrolled children, close to 400,000 of New Mexico’s uninsured could gain coverage. All eyes now turn to the legislative session, where legislators and the Martinez Administration will make important decisions about health reform implementation, including the Exchange, outreach and education plans (including Navigator funding), and Medicaid.
Done right, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to connect New Mexico’s uninsured and underserved populations to healthcare – creating a powerful and lasting impact on health disparities in the state. We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
