The Santa Fe New Mexican:
Senate panel approves help for well owners: A bill that could help New Mexicans struggling with contaminated wells — including Mora County residents whose wells have been polluted by heavy metals that may be connected to the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire and residents south of Santa Fe dealing with PFAS — received unanimous approval from the Senate Conservation Committee Saturday morning.
“This is really important for our communities,” said Paula Garcia, executive director of the New Mexico Acequia Association.
Sponsored by Sen. Pete Campos, D-Las Vegas, Senate Bill 122 would commit an additional $6 million to well water testing and treatment.
Christine Dobbin, an Anthony native whose family has been farming and ranching for generations, said she grew up with wells contaminated by arsenic and her family had to bring in water in jugs and bottles.
“Agriculture is our home,” she said. “We want our water to be clean and we want to be able to still steward our land for hundreds of years into the future.”
‘Clear Horizons’ to be heard: A controversial bill to codify the state’s emissions reduction goals will get a lengthy hearing Tuesday before what is expected to be a large crowd.
The Senate Conservation Committee hearing on Senate Bill 18, commonly known as the “Clear Horizons Act”, will start at 9 a.m. in the Senate chambers instead of the usual committee room, Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, the committee chair, said Saturday. The audience will sit in the Senate gallery, she said, with supporters and opponents each to get an hour to testify.
Then, she said, senators on the committee will have two hours to ask questions and make comments, followed by a vote at 1:30 p.m. so the full Senate can take the floor at 2 p.m.
This is the second time this session where a committee hearing on a controversial bill expected to generate a large amount of testimony is being held in one of the legislative chambers instead of the usual committee room. Last week a committee hearing on House Bill 9, which would ban local governments from contracting to run immigration detention centers, was held on the House floor.
Filling a gap in Medigap: A bill advanced in the Senate that would allow Medicare supplement policyholders to change their policies each year.
The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 21 by a unanimous vote Friday afternoon. The legislation heads next to the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee.
The bill would allow seniors with Medicare supplement — or Medigap — policies to change to a policy of equal or lesser value without a medical underwriting process during an annual open enrollment period tied to their birthday.3
A memo from the state Health Care Authority notes the bill “expands consumer protections within the 3Medicare supplement market while remaining consistent with federal standards.”
The bill is opposed by health insurance companies, which have expressed concerns the change would alter the risk pool for Medicare supplement policies and increase premiums across the board.
A division director from the state Office of the Superintendent of Insurance, Viara Ianakieva, noted during Friday’s hearing that insurance premiums increase each year regardless. She said her division receives about 2,000 calls per year from seniors regarding Medigap coverage, many of whom wish to change their policies but cannot under current state law.
“Essentially what’s happening is these people are aging, they get locked into these policies, and they don’t have the choice to shop for a cheaper policy if available,” Ianakieva said.
Securing some health care funding from federal cuts: The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee also voted Friday to advance a bill that would eliminate a sunset clause for a state law that provided a funding pool for hospitals throughout the state to receive federal funding, with legislators citing federal policy changes that threaten the Medicaid-based program.
Senate Bill 101 would eliminate a 2030 sunset provision of the Health Care Delivery and Access Act, which was passed in 2024 to create a funding model for hospitals to receive federal funds meant for operating and capital costs, workforce and creation or expansion of services.
Congress approved changes to Medicaid provider assessments in the 2025 federal reconciliation bill signed into law last summer, commonly called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which will result in a net loss of about $190 million a year to New Mexico hospitals starting in the 2028 fiscal year and compounding to $1.3 billion annually by 2034, according to a legislative staff analysis of SB 101.
State officials noted the state program created in 2024 allows for the reimbursement of more than $1 billion in federal funding to hospitals each year, including more than $34 million to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and about $14 million to Española Presbyterian Hospital in 2025.
Health Care Authority Cabinet Secretary Kari Armijo said Friday the reconciliation bill disallows states from creating new programs like New Mexico’s Health Care Delivery and Access Act, “which is why removing the sunset is so essential, since we would not be able to replace it.”
A premature or abrupt end to the program “could be devastating for New Mexico’s hospitals, particularly in rural and underserved areas,” she said.
The bill is supported by the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the New Mexico Hospital Association.
Quote of the day: “I’ve never figured out how to automatically have my TV turn on.” —Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, when a person testifying virtually before the Senate Conservation Committee said their TV came on mid-testimony.