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.
Will Congress extend federal stimulus Medicaid dollars another six months like New Mexico, and a host of other states, are counting on?
The New Mexico state budget signed into law in March assumes $85 million in additional Medicaid stimulus funding. (It’s on the page numbered 2 in the Legislative Finance Committee’s Post-Session Overview).
But right now it appears unclear whether Congress is indeed going to pass the extra stimulus money for Medicaid, Stateline.org reports today.
“Now, with Congress ratcheting up its scrutiny of new spending, it’s not at all clear that the Medicaid assistance will ever materialize.”
No extension of federal stimulus dollars for Medicaid, the government’s low-income health insurance program, could wreak havoc with New Mexico’s state budget.
No extension would mean the federal Medicaid stimulus money would disappear Dec. 31 instead of June 30 of 2011 assumed in New Mexico’s new state budget. (The state’s budget year runs from July 1 to June 30). The loss of $85 million in extra Medicaid stimulus funding would instantly increase the financial gap between revenues and expenses that New Mexico find itself in.
As the Independent has written before, there’s increasing pressure on Medicaid as a health insurer of last resorts as more and more New Mexicans sign up for the program at the same time that the federal Medicaid stimulus money is nearing an end.
The question is when will the end to federal Medicaid stimulus dollars come: Dec. 31 of this year or June 30 of next year. The answer is very important.
