HELP FUND MEDICAID

August 10, 2020


Please Contact Our Senators and Representatives
To Tell them to Fund Medicaid!

We need your help in contacting our senators and representatives to make our voices heard in securing additional funding for state Medicaid programs. With both seniors and those with disabilities relying on Medicaid funded home and community-based supports (HCBS) to live independently, this issue is of vital importance to so many people within our community.

Following is a message from Ellen Pinnes and the Disability Coalition about this critical issue…and how you can help. Please join us in making the voice of the disability community heard about the importance of funding state Medicaid programs – and contact our senators and/or your representatives today!

Congress’s next bill addressing the coronavirus pandemic needs to include additional money for state Medicaid programs – contact your senators and representative and ask them to make sure the final package includes this important funding!

Medicaid is an important source of health care that covers about 40% of New Mexicans. And as you know, seniors and individuals with disabilities rely on Medicaid-funded home- and community-based supports (HCBS) to live independently.

The costs of the Medicaid program are shared by the states and the federal government, with the feds paying a set percentage of the cost in each state. Here in New Mexico, the drastic fall in state revenues due to the pandemic has reduced the state’s ability to come up with the full amount of the state share of anticipated program costs. State officials are already considering options for cutting the program.

In the Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed earlier this year, Congress added 6.2 percentage points to the federal match rate for each state, reducing the amount the state has to pay. That helped a lot, but they need to do more.  The increase in the federal share should be raised to 12 percentage points as provided in the HEROES Act that the House passed in May. This position is supported by both Democratic and Republican governors and other officials.

Negotiations on the terms of the next Congressional relief package are currently underway.  We encourage you to contact Senators Udall and Heinrich and your Representative (Rep. Haaland, Rep. Lujan or Rep. Torres Small) – ask them to make sure additional Medicaid funding is included in the final bill. Hearing from their constituents who tell them this is important strengthens their position in fighting for this provision to be part of the next pandemic relief package.

Here are phone numbers and websites for New Mexico’s senators and representatives:  

You can also contact them through their field offices in New Mexico – those numbers are available on their websites.

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE VOICE OF THE DISABILITY COMMUNITY HEARD!