I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
A group of advocates is arguing against the potential elimination of dental benefits for low-income adults enrolled in the state’s primary health insurance program. The group, Better Choices New Mexico, has put out a flier on the eve of a presentation by New Mexico Human Services Pam Hyde before the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee in Rio Rancho today.
Hyde has already mentioned adult dental benefits as one of several places to cut Medicaid, the state’s primary health insurance program for the low-income. Hyde has said that New Mexico must start cutting programs deeply—or find a big revenue source—to address what could be up to a $300 million shortfall in its Medicaid budget by Jan. 1, 2011. Potential cuts are contained in a Powerpoint presentation put out by her agency.
The group Better Choices knows which side it falls on. The group says canceling dental benefits would exacerbate tooth decay, which affects “more than 90 percent of American adults. When untreated, decay leads to oral disease, which is associated with heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia, stroke, and even death. Millions of dollars will end up being spent on emergency room visits for preventable severe oral disease and the associated complications.”
The flier goes on to say:
While some cuts are inevitable, we urge lawmakers to take a more balanced and fair approach by raising revenue as well.
Legislators have a clear choice: they can either cut funding for adult dental coverage or they can take a more balanced approach—one that doesn’t lay all the sacrifice on working families and that offers a sensible, long-term solution.
