State studies GOP health overhaul plan
Sen. Udall accuses House GOP of writing plan in secret with no Democratic input
Mexico’s health care sector and policymakers were warily studying a proposal Tuesday by U.S. House Republicans to replace the Affordable Care Act that has cut the state’s uninsured rate in half since 2013.
Of particular concern were measures to reduce federal matching funds for newcomers to Medicaid health coverage starting in mid-2019, and link overall federal spending on Medicaid to a limited, per-beneficiary amount.
Residents of New Mexico have flocked to enroll in Medicaid health care for the poor and disabled since Republican Gov. Susana Martinez agreed to expand the program to more low-income individuals. The uninsured rate in New Mexico has plummeted to 8.9 percent of the population, from 18.6 percent in 2013, according to state insurance regulators.
Martinez, who cannot run for a third term in 2018, now favors repeal and replacement of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, while declining to comment Tuesday on the House Republican plan. She recently expressed concern in a brief statement about rising insurance premiums and said Obama’s law denied access to care and meant many people could not keep their doctors.
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., on Tuesday accused House Republicans of writing their plan “in secret behind closed doors with no input from Democrats, patients or consumers.” Proposed Medicaid funding changes, he said, threaten to upend state government finances and a health care industry that is one of the few flourishing areas of New Mexico’s struggling economy.
“People who are enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program like their care,” he said in a conference call with reporters. “From everything we’ve heard this is very popular.”
As of January, Medicaid covers 898,000 of New Mexico’s 2.1 million residents on a full- or part-time basis, according to the state Legislative Finance Committee. About 263,000 are in the expansion population, open to single adults who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate, or about $16,650.
This fiscal year, New Mexico expects to receive about $4.6 billion in federal matching funds for Medicaid while spending about $1.2 billion from state coffers. Nevertheless, state government is struggling to keep up with its Medicaid demands amid a budget crisis linked to a downturn in the oil sector.
New Mexico has an escape clause in its annual budget that allows the state to reduce or rescind eligibility for Medicaid if federal matching funds dry up.
New Mexico Primary Care Association President David Roddy said that proposed future limits on federal Medicaid spending could threaten the treatment capabilities at community health clinics as they treat the state’s poor and uninsured for chronic health issues such as diabetes. “We’ve gotten to the point where we’re able to model the control of these diseases,” Roddy said.
U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, the sole Republican in New Mexico’s delegation to Washington, said in a statement that the Republican reform plan does not go far enough in reducing “mandates that have driven health care insurance
prices up for millions,” without going into more specifics.
Just how the Republican plan will affect insurance coverage levels is unclear.
Beyond Medicaid, another 45,000 New Mexico residents participate in the state’s health insurance exchange.
New Mexico residents who enrolled in marketplace coverage received an average monthly premium tax credit of $205 last year, covering more than half of their premiums.
Under the current federal system, most credits go to households of low to modest incomes. Under the GOP plan, more middle-class consumers would benefit from credits that can be used to buy any state-licensed health plan.
New Mexico Insurance Superintendent John Franchini has cautioned against abrupt changes to health exchange subsidies, noting that many participants are healthy and help balance the cost for sicker individuals.
New Mexicans witnessed an average insurance premium rate increase of about 30 percent for 2017 policies among major insurance carriers that provide individual coverage, according the Office of the Insurance Superintendent.