Lujan Grisham: More than 27,000 New Mexicans could lose insurance if federal credits expire

A week before a special legislative session planned to address federal cuts to health care and other areas, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham joined other Democratic governors to sound the alarm on the looming expiration of enhanced federal tax credits tens of thousands of New Mexicans use to help pay for health insurance.

The governors warned premiums could increase as much as 75% and force "hard-working families" to choose between health insurance and basic necessities.

"In New Mexico, this is what it means: More than 27,000 folks, given the increased cost of these premiums, will be forced out of the private marketplace," Lujan Grisham said Wednesday during a virtual news conference hosted by the Democratic Governors Association.

"They will make too much to be eligible for Medicaid, and even if they were, with the cuts to Medicaid down the pike, they are in an unsure, unstable situation," she said.

About 75,000 New Mexicans buy health insurance through BeWell, the state exchange set up as part of the Affordable Care Act, 88% of whom qualify for federal and state premium assistance, the state Office of the Superintendent of Insurance said in an August news release. More than half of those 75,000 pay less than $10 a month for coverage due to federal and state subsidies. The state Health Care Affordability Fund is expected to make up for the expiring tax credits for some enrollees.

The tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year, have become a point of contention to prevent a government shutdown. While some Republicans "are rejecting Democrats’ demands to extend [the subsidies] this month in a government funding bill," according to NBC News, others have stressed the urgency of the situation since open enrollment begins Nov. 1.

"As governors, we've seen the disastrous effects of D.C. Republicans' attacks on health care firsthand," Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, chair of the Democratic Governors Association, said during the news conference.

"Now at a time when working families are already being squeezed by high prices, President [Donald] Trump and Republicans in Congress would rather shut down the government than work across the aisle to lower costs and protect health care," she said.

Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer said he ran for public office because he felt he was being lied to by insincere politicians — which he said has continued.

"I think we're being lied to now by a president, [and] by numerous, numerous Republican elected officials who ran on platforms of really supporting working American families and are now literally taking the rug out from under them, making health care more expensive," he said.

"Let's not look at their rhetoric," Meyer added. "Let's look at what they're actually doing."

Meyer said his wife is an emergency room physician who will "tell you that the single most expensive health care that we can provide" is emergency room services.

"Yet failed choices by our federal government have put the nation on the brink of sending thousands and thousands of hard-working Americans to emergency rooms because they simply cannot afford health insurance," he said. "It does not need to be this way. This is America in the 21st century. There's a fix that Congress can take right now ... that will save millions of dollars in unnecessary costs in our health care system."

Lujan Grisham noted she is calling a special session set to begin Oct. 1.

"We're going to dip into our savings and reserves in order to blunt the problems with the cuts to Medicaid already, putting money into our rural hospitals and rural community centers so they don't close, shoring up our ERs and our provider payments and creating a Medicaid trust fund," she said.

"But when we do that, we destabilize our investments somewhere else," Lujan Grisham continued. "Congress has the power to protect you in the same way states do. They have the power to make your costs reasonably lower. This president campaigned on delivering just those set of promises, and he has delivered none of them. Let's make Congress act."

Republicans have accused Lujan Grisham of fearmongering about the impact of federal cuts and called for the special session to reduce health care costs by overhauling the state's medical malpractice laws.

State Senate Republicans plan to hold a task force meeting Monday featuring testimony from doctors, hospital representatives, patients and state Department of Health Secretary Gina DeBlassie to draw attention to what the Senate GOP characterized in a news release as "ongoing public interest and concern regarding New Mexico’s deteriorating access to quality healthcare" and a lack of action from legislative Democrats.

Lujan Grisham, Kelly and Meyer called for bipartisan negotiation to extend the subsidies.

"These are really life and death issues," said Lujan Grisham, who is in New York City to attend a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.

"It is, in fact, a simple fix: We just need to extend the tax credits and to make sure that we don't see this kind of double-digit escalation in those premiums," she said.

Meyer said extending the tax credits is "one of the simplest ways" for Congress to bring relief to working American families.

"If Congress lets these tax credits expire," he said, "families across America will be forced into impossible choices."

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