Editor,
Worse for your health than any chronic health disease you could name.
The Washington bureaucrats have devised a plan which will make you sick! Yes, that’s right: they are pushing their “American Healthcare Plan” again. Only this time, it really will make you sick. The plan will slash Medicaid, leaving 180,000 New Mexicans without health insurance. Quite possibly, at least one of your family members, friends or acquaintances will lose health coverage under this bill.
Under the new bill, thanks to the folks from the “Freedom Caucus,” there would be no mandate for insurance to fund services for maternal and/or newborn care or mental health. Insurance companies would be able to hike rates for people with pre-existing conditions without any restraints.It is not a surprise to anyone that more than 40 percent of New Mexicans are enrolled in Medicaid. Our hospitals depend on the reimbursements from Medicaid to take care of us and offer the services we need desperately. Medicaid currently supports an estimated 50,000 jobs in this state. Imagine what the fallout from that will be on our state economy. We are not a state with vast resources.
This new “bill” and all of the associated cuts will also significantly harm our already fragile economy. One of the largest economic sectors with among the highest job growth rates is healthcare. These cuts to Medicaid will most certainly have a very negative effect and likely cost thousands of New Mexican’s their jobs. These job cuts will come through actual job losses and the inability to create many others.
As a nurse, I encourage my patients’ and their families to engage in “health friendly” and “health supporting” behaviors. I want everyone to be as healthy and engaged with life as they possibly can which means making choices - choices about what to eat, getting exercise, doing those things in life that help you reduce stress and provide balance.
You have a choice right now that will impact your health, perhaps in ways you don’t even realize. The choice is whether or not to pick up your phone, your pen or get in your vehicle and visit Congressman Steve Pearce in one of his New Mexico offices and tell him to vote “No” on the new TrumpCare bill.
Congressman Pearce needs to hear your opposition to the new TrumpCare bill from you!
Lorie MacIver
BSN, RNC-LRNPresident of
District 1199 New Mexico
Daily Lobo reader
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
