New Mexico Voices for Children Core Value: Healthy Communities Affordable health care, quality education, and safe neighborhoods for all

A healthy community is one in which children and their parents have access to affordable health care, including preventive and mental health care, where children receive quality education that begins before elementary school, and children are safe from harm. In a health community, everyone is invested and involved, and neighbors work together to discourage crime and drug use.

Issue Areas::
Health Care
Education
Child Safety

Issue Area: Health Care
(back to top) (NM Children’s Charter outcome #2: Every child and adult has access to quality health care, including mental health care; #13: Our state has and enforces strong environmental laws that protect public health and the future of the planet)

Ongoing Priorities:

• Guarantee health care for everyone. Other developed nations have proven that it's not only possible, but it can be far better and less expensive than our health-care system. Nor does universal health care have to be the government-run single-payer systems of Canada and England. The states and the federal government must work together to ensure that everyone has coverage. Our future economic security depends upon it. Download our 2008 Legislative Briefing Series (on page 3 of 9; pdf)
• Make health care premiums and co-pays affordable.
• Fully implement the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to assure that all New Mexicans have access to health care.
• Require parity for mental and behavioral health care under private health insurance.
• Require that substance abuse treatment be covered by private health insurance.
• Fully fund Medicaid and the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) so that all eligible children can be enrolled. Download our policy brief Covering All Kids: A Good First Step Toward Universal Health Care (Aug. 2008; 2 pages; pdf)
• Simplify enrollment and retention in Medicaid and CHIP.
• Fully fund all public health programs including those that provide immunizations for children and adults.
• Expand the number of school-based health centers (SBHCs), particularly in rural areas of the state, and grant them adequate funding. Children don't learn when they are at home sick and they are more likely to access health care when it is in a familiar setting. Parents do not lose any authority over their child's health care and don't have to take time off from work so their children can see a doctor.
• Fully fund Medicaid waivers to end the waiting lists for those needing services under the Developmental Disabilities, Medically Fragile, Disabled and Elderly Waivers.
• Require that medical interpreters are available in all major hospitals for patients speaking Navajo, Spanish and Vietnamese.
• Substantially increase state- and federal-level funding for programs serving Native Americans, such as Indian Health Services (IHS).
• Increase funding for programs to protect children from abuse and neglect, and prevention programs for bullying, youth suicide, and domestic violence.
• Fund tobacco-use prevention programs at the level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Increase the tax on smokeless tobacco. Tobacco taxes have been increases on cigarettes, but chewing tobacco is often exempted. Taxing smokeless tobacco products would deter use by young people and raise revenues for medical care for those harmed by using tobacco products.
• Enact publicly funded efforts to reduce the incidence of childhood obesity and diabetes.
• Enact and enforce higher standards for air, water and food safety.
• Fully fund and support age-appropriate sexual health services and education.
• Create and fully fund programs that reduce New Mexico’s high teen pregnancy rate.

Current Policies We Support:

• The passage of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which initiated the process of health care and insurance reform. Although the package was far from perfect, it was landmark legislation that will set the stage for future reform and help reduce the federal deficit. Enacted in 2010.
• The 75-cents-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes. Studies have shown that tax increases discourage tobacco use, but only when they are in relatively large amounts. Small, incremental raises, like five or ten cents a pack, do not have this effect. Enacted in 2010. Download our fact sheet Potential Revenue Generators (Aug. 2009; 2 pages; pdf)
• Passage of the Dee Johnson Clean Indoor Air Act, which protected more New Mexicans from exposure to second-hand smoke by making it illegal to smoke in most work environments, including most bars and restaurants. Enacted in 2007.
• Reauthorization of the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by Congress in 2007. Download The Crisis in Health Care and the Reauthorization of S-CHIP in the 2007 Congress (Nov. 2006; 4 pages; pdf)
• Adequate funding of the SNAP program, food banks and school breakfast, lunch and dinner programs and efforts to simplify enrollment and retention in these programs.
• The federal Child Nutrition Act.
• Efforts to keep our air, water and food quality safe for all, especially children, who are most vulnerable to environmental contaminants.
• Criminal and juvenile justice programs that are based on reform and rehabilitation, and drug rehabilitation programs as alternatives to incarceration.
• A person’s right to contraception and birth control at an affordable price and with privacy.

Policies We Oppose:

• Any additional cuts in eligibility or benefit levels for Medicaid and CHIP recipients.
• Allowing children to serve as medical interpreters for family members who do not speak English.
• The criminalization of tobacco use by underage youth. While NM Voices acknowledges that young people should not be using tobacco products, we do not believe that criminalizing children is an effective or appropriate action.
• Allowing the use of corporal punishment in schools.
• Initiatives seeking to try child criminal suspects as adults.
• Requiring original birth certificates to apply for Medicaid. Enacted by Congress as part of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, this was a misguided attempt to keep undocumented immigrants from receiving Medicaid – despite the fact that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department had already concluded that very few did. The upshot for parents is that they must now produce an original birth certificate or passport for their Medicaid-eligible children. This places one more unnecessary stumbling block between children and medical care.

Issue Area: Education
(back to top) (NM Children’s Charter outcome #3: Every family has access to affordable, safe and high quality early childcare and education; #4: Every child has access to a public education system that is fully funded and in which resources are equitably distributed; #5: Every New Mexican can afford to go to college; and #7: Our youth have enough positive options available to them that they put off parenthood until they are older and economically independent)

Ongoing Policy Priorities:

• Invest in quality early childcare and education to create a continuum of services, beginning at birth, that connect early childhood care and development programs with K-12 education. Download our report Early Childhood Supports in New Mexico: Challenges and Opportunities (April 2009; 4 pages; pdf)
• Increase funding to restore eligibility for childcare assistance to parents living at 200% of the federal poverty level. Download our 2007 Legislative Briefing Series (on page 10 of 15; pdf)
• Raise the wage level at which families lose childcare assistance. Often, families are unable to accept pay raises because it would make them ineligible for benefits such as childcare assistance—even when the raise amount is less than the benefit that it would replace.
• Increase funding for programs that improve the quality of childcare and early education programs such as Aim High, T.E.A.C.H. and WAGE$. Download our report Improving Infant and Toddler Care and Education in New Mexico (June 2006; 32 pages; pdf)
• Increase access to proven programs such as voluntary home visiting and pre-K. Download our report Improving Infant and Toddler Care and Education in New Mexico (June 2006; 32 pages; pdf)
• Adequately fund elementary and secondary education programs so all New Mexico children receive a quality education.
• Increase support for out-of-school time programs such as service learning and community volunteerism, to provide greater opportunities for young people.
• Require financial literacy as part of the state’s high school curriculum.
• Require age-appropriate sexual health education as part of an overall effort to reduce teen pregnancy rates.
• Fully fund New Mexico’s college and universities and the College Affordability Fund for low-income students. Download our 2007 Legislative Briefing Series (on page 15 of 15; pdf)
• Invest more funding in adult basic education programs, English as a second language courses, and targeted workforce training. Download our report The Path to a High Road Economy: Investing in People, Creating Opportunity (Jan. 2006; 39 pages; pdf)

Current Policies We Support:

• The passage of SAFRA, which de-privatized the federal student loan program in order to lower interest rates and make loans available to more college students. Enacted in 2010.
• Programs that improve a parent’s involvement in their child’s education.
• New Mexico’s lottery scholarships.
• Mentoring, positive youth development, and other asset-building programs for youth.

Policies We Oppose:

• Abstinence-only programs, which have been proven to be ineffective.
• Allowing colleges to steer students toward particular lenders.

Issue Area: Child Safety
(back to top) (NM Children’s Charter outcome #20: Every community is a safe, welcoming place for families and children)

Ongoing Policy Priorities:

• Require gun manufacturers to put safety locks on all firearms. While no one thinks twice about buckling children into car safety seats, we fail our children by not requiring this simple, but effective, safety measure on guns. Download our report A Public Health Response to Youth Gun Violence (Jan. 2003; 8 pages; pdf)
• Allow families to sue for damages when a child is injured or killed with a gun and the manufacturer is found to be negligent. Gun makers and sellers currently have legal immunity—even when they are found to be negligent. No other industry is provided this kind of legal immunity.
• Require the use of safety helmets by children when skiing, and limit child use of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs)

Current Policies We Support:

• Passage of the Child Helmet Safety Act, which requires that children wear helmets when bike riding and roller skating. Downhill skiing, however, was not included. Enacted in 2007.
• Enforcement of child car seat, booster seat, and seat belt usage laws.
• Enforcement of child labor laws.

Policies We Oppose:

• Expanding the scope of laws that allow more people to carry concealed weapons in more places. Enacted in 2010.
• Implementing and expanding youth curfew laws. While curfew laws are purported to be for the safety of children, studies indicate that children are most in harm's way in the after-school hours, not from midnight to 5am. Curfew laws do not protect children, but they do perpetuate negative images of young people as troublemakers.
• Gang affiliation registration, which does not create a deterrent to joining a gang. Such laws simply imply that certain youth are guilty by association and can lead to racial profiling.
• Enhancing penalties for crimes committed as a gang member or in an attempt to recruit other gang members.