Press Releases

Watch the press conference HERE.

ESPAÑOLA, N.M. –  Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández (NM-03) and Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) joined health care experts and New Mexicans who rely on Medicaid to expose the devastating consequences of the proposed $880 billion in Republican cuts to Medicaid. The cuts would threaten rural health clinics, strip coverage from families, and endanger life-saving care for children and vulnerable patients.

The members held the virtual press conference from El Centro Family Health in Española, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) where nearly half of all patients rely on Medicaid.

“We’re here in El Centro because New Mexicans’ health care is under attack,” said Congresswoman Leger Fernández live from El Centro Family Health. “Many clinics that look like [El Centro] are in Republican areas, they’re in Pennsylvania, in Texas, in Iowa, they are across this country. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, it's an issue of keeping our population safe and doing it in an incredibly cost effective manner [...] If you believe in babies and family values, you should believe in making sure those babies are born healthy.”

Senator Luján reinforced the importance of protecting health care for working families. 

“What’s playing out right now is one of the biggest scams before the eyes of the American people,” said Lujan “The safety net of these healthcare programs and the access to them to keep us healthy and safe are being gutted before our eyes … All so they can give tax breaks to the most wealthy in the country.” 

Vanessa Herrera, a mother from Taos whose son depends on Medicaid for life-saving medication, shared her family’s fears.

“My son Alex, he’s 6 years old, and he was unexpectedly diagnosed with haemophilia when he was just a year old,” said Herrera. “Medicaid has helped us because the medicine for haemophilia is very costly and without medicaid we wouldn't have been able to afford it. We are scared to lose it, because I don’t want to lose my son.”

Dr. Leslie Hayes, Chief Clinical Officer at El Centro Family Health, warned of the dire impact on health providers. “What happens to the patients if you don’t have a medical provider in your clinic? Well, they die of preventable causes.”

Dr. Vesta Sandoval, Chief Medical Officer of Lovelace Health System said “ Medicaid is a lifeline to protect people's health and without it, it's gonna have devastating health on our entire New Mexico health system and we can’t afford that, New Mexicans as patients can’t afford that. 50% of children in rural areas of New Mexico have medicaid.”

Medicaid is a critical pillar of New Mexico’s health care system:

• More than 706,000 New Mexicans (34.3% of the state’s population) rely on Medicaid.

• In Rio Arriba County, 38.9% of residents and 64.9% of children are covered by Medicaid/CHIP.

• 47% of patients at El Centro Family Health are Medicaid recipients.

• New Mexico’s Medicaid program receives over $1.85 billion in federal funding annually.

Leger Fernández underscored that these cuts are a direct attack on working families. “[Republicans]  have a vision of the people who rely on these essential government programs . Musk said it, he put it in a tweet “the parasite class”. They’re not the parasite class, they are neighbors, they are farmers, they’re people who work in the grocery store, they are people who work in the healthcare industry. They are the people who care for your children and care for your elderly. They are people we love. They are not parasites,” she said.

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