Heinrich Hosts Roundtable with Medicaid Participants, Health Care Professionals, & Students on Impacts of Trump’s Medicaid Cuts to New Mexicans

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) hosted a roundtable with Medicaid participants, local health care providers and leaders, and students to discuss how President Donald Trump and Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid will hurt New Mexico families and shutter rural hospitals. 

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) hosts a roundtable conversation with Medicaid participants, local health care providers and leaders, and students to discuss how President Donald Trump and Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid will hurt New Mexico families and shutter rural hospitals, June 20, 2025.  

Approximately 40% of New Mexico residents participate in Medicaid. Reporting shows that over 90,000 New Mexicans could lose their coverage should Republicans pass their so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” into law.

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) hosts a roundtable conversation with Medicaid participants, local health care providers and leaders, and students to discuss how President Donald Trump and Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid will hurt New Mexico families and shutter rural hospitals, June 20, 2025.

“When you think about the fact that roughly 40% of New Mexicans are on Medicaid, and it is the foundation of their stability and health care in their lives, and we can see 96,000 — that's a conservative estimate — 96,000 Medicaid recipients in the state lose coverage, that would be absolutely debilitating for our state,” Heinrich said.

Heinrich continued, “You couldn't design a budget reconciliation package that would be worse for the state of New Mexico. Medicaid is critical.”

“If patients lose Medicaid, it's not like they're not getting care, they're just going to get care elsewhere — and care becomes more expensive, more fragmented, and unpredictable. Patients' outcomes are going to be much worse if they lose this continuity of care,” said Dr. Damara Kaplan, a urologist at the New Mexico Cancer Center. “I take care of multiple patients with cancer — and certainly younger patients with cancer — and they're concerned that if they lose their Medicaid funding, they're going to lose their cancer treatments.”

“If you touch one part, you're touching all of it. It’s all interconnected and that's the way our healthcare system is in New Mexico. And it's a fragile spider's weapon. If we have a hospital close in the far northeast corner of our community, Clayton, New Mexico, Silver City will feel the effect, which is in the opposite corner of the state. If we lose providers in Las Cruces, Santa Fe will feel the effect. Just like a spider web, no matter where you touch it, the whole thing is going to shake,” said Troy Clark, CEO for the New Mexico Hospital Association.

BACKGROUND: 

According to the NM Healthcare Authority, Medicaid is the largest payor of health care in New Mexico and the entire provider network depends on the state’s current Medicaid coverage landscape.?In New Mexico, the federal government pays 77% of all Medicaid costs, with the remainder covered by the state.?Cutting Medicaid and therefore shifting the burden to states would be devastating to health coverage and hurt the state budget overall.??

7 out of 10 nursing home residents in New Mexico are covered by Medicaid. 55% of newborn births in New Mexico are covered by Medicaid.?40% of New Mexicans are covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Initiative Program (CHIP).???

Background on Heinrich’s Recent Actions to Protect Medicaid and Medicare:

On April 22nd, Heinrich co-sponsored legislation that would protect Medicare and Medicaid by prohibiting changes to these programs in reconciliation. 

On April 5th, Heinrich voted against Senate Republicans’ budget resolution that funds Donald Trump’s tax handouts for billionaires at the expense of working people.? Heinrich and Senate Democrats also tried to block cuts to Medicaid, extend the tax credits for health care premiums, and prevent millions of Americans from losing health insurance.?

In May, Heinrich introduced the Strengthening Medicare and Reducing Taxpayer (SMART) Prices Act, legislation that would expand Medicare negotiation of drug prices to lower drug costs for consumers, reduce federal spending, and give the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stronger tools to negotiate lower drug prices in Medicare Part B and Part D.?

The legislation builds on provisions passed into law by Heinrich in 2022 that empowered Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time. The SMART Prices Act would extend this progress by more than doubling the number of prescription drugs Medicare must negotiate to a minimum of 50 per year, allowing the most costly prescription drugs and biologics to have negotiated prices five years after approval by the Food and Drug Administration, and by increasing the discount that Medicare is allowed to negotiate.

In April, Heinrich sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to demand answers about the tens of thousands of federal public health workers that have been fired, including those at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).?