New Mexico US Rep. Stansbury touts state’s universal healthcare push during Albuquerque visit

U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) on Thursday visited Albuquerque to tout roughly $11 million in funding her office has secured for an array of healthcare programs, including cancer research, mobile crisis centers and a sobering center. 

All of those programs, Stansbury said at a news conference at the University of New Mexico’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, complement a burgeoning proposal at the Roundhouse this upcoming session: universal healthcare.

The $11 million the congresswoman secured through congressional earmarks “is coupled with the work that New Mexico is doing…to hopefully one day be able to deliver universal healthcare to all New Mexicans,” Stansbury said. “And what I can say is, New Mexico is truly on the front lines in delivering healthcare.”

Several Democratic lawmakers have pointed to universal healthcare as the next step in a series of healthcare reforms and universal programs they’ve undertaken in recent years. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Deb Haaland has also said she would prioritize developing a public option, which would allow all New Mexicans access to a government-funded healthcare plan that competes with the private market.  

New Mexico House Speaker Rep. Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque), who joined Haaland for her April unveiling of her healthcare agenda, likened Haaland’s plan for a public option to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s efforts to use the state’s cash-rich permanent funds to pay for free university tuition and universal child care.

He said at the time that a public option is “always going to be the less expensive, most efficient, best way to deliver healthcare.”

Rep. Liz Thomson (D-Albuquerque), who chairs the Legislature’s interim Health and Human Services Committee, told Source NM after the news conference that the lawmakers will start “laying the groundwork” at the 60-day session beginning Jan. 19, with the goal of having a fully funded universal healthcare program by 2029. 

Thomson said she will carry several bills herself that would represent initial steps toward full universal coverage, including legislation that would cover all New Mexico children’s healthcare, all behavioral healthcare or all primary care. 

“We know it’s going to take a long process, but we’re ready to do the work,” Thomson told Source NM. 

Stansbury concluded her speech Thursday by declaring that “healthcare is a human right” and noting that she has co-sponsored a “Medicare for All” bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

“Until the United States has a healthcare system where every single person has access to care, we’re going to continue to fight every day to make sure that New Mexico is leading the way, and I’m confident we’ll get there,” she said.