URGENT CARE
Readers offer their own prescriptions for what will make a better health system
Cuts would endanger mentally ill
IN TIMES OF outrageous tweets and heated disputes about “alternative facts,” it is all too easy to get distracted from life or death issues being considered in Washington and Santa Fe. One of the most distressing of those important issues is the campaign to take away services from our neighbors who suffer from mental health problems and chemical addiction.
Two years ago Bernalillo County voters courageously approved a gross receipts tax increase to fund new and expanded behavioral health services. As chair of the Community Supports subcommittee to develop and oversee programs paid for by some of these funds, I am proud to see this $18 million begin to be channeled into effective plans that will provide healing and even lifesaving services.
Now, however, our legislators in Santa Fe are developing a budget bill that eliminates $38 million in Medicaid spending, which would result in a total cut of $190 million because of lost federal matching funds. Our additional $18 million from the gross receipts tax in Bernalillo County would be reduced by a factor of 10 because of this reduction.
In Washington, the Congress and administration move forward in their tragic quest to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has enabled our state to reduce the percentage of New Mexicans without insurance from over 20 percent to just 10 percent.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calculates that 2.8 million Americans with substance abuse disorders now have coverage under the ACA. If that coverage goes away, thousands of our neighbors with behavioral health diseases who have finally been able to get access to care would once again suffer on the sidewalks of our city or lose their lives for lack of care.
We must keep our eyes on the important issues that bring health, well-being and economic vitality to our community and state. Cutting necessary care to our neighbors in need is not the right answer. PAUL E. HOPKINS Albuquerque