DEMING – Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday to discuss the importance of Medicare and Medicaid for New Mexicans. Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz announced that applications for a new $50 billion rural hospital fund will open in early September.
The fund follows the recent passage of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which shifted federal spending toward border security and defense while cutting Medicaid funding. Some Republican senators pushed for the rural hospital fund to soften the impact of the cuts.
Governor Lujan Grisham said the plan creates more red tape than solutions. When host Margaret Brennan asked if the governor had figured out how to implement the new requirements, she replied, “Absolutely not. There is no real way to implement this. It’s more paperwork for everyone… Americans really hate, Margaret, when you go to your primary care physician and you spend 20 minutes sitting at a chair, not even on the exam table, while they are inputting data into a computer. So this doesn’t make any sense.”
New Mexico’s Medicaid director told KRQE News 13 that nearly 34% of the state’s residents are enrolled in Medicaid, and the new law could force six to eight rural hospitals to close in its first year. Dr. Oz confirmed that applications for the rural hospital fund are set to begin in early September.