Michelle Lujan Grisham Offers Vision for Health Care at Candidate Forum

ALBUQUERQUE – Congressional Democratic Nominee Michelle Lujan Grisham made a strong case at a candidate forum tonight for how she will use her experience to build on the Affordable Care Act to increase access to quality health care and make prescription drugs more affordable.

Lujan Grisham also said she would aggressively fight against the Ryan Budget plan that would gut Medicare, and she drew sharp contrasts with her Republican opponent who offered no plan to address health care.

“I want to point out that the Ryan Budget, which decimates Medicare…does nothing to invest in workforce or health care delivery in this country,” Michelle Lujan Grisham said of the of the Republican plan favored by her opponent. That plan would gut Medicare and create VoucherCare in its place, forcing seniors to pay an additional $6,300 a year for healthcare.

The Ryan Budget would also turn Medicaid into a block-grant system that allows states to spend less on health care for their most vulnerable citizens.

Michelle Lujan Grisham told the audience at the health care forum that she strongly favors the Medicaid expansion outlined in the Affordable Care Act, which would cover another 130,000 New Mexicans and bolster the state’s economy with an investment of billions of new dollars.

“It shores up hospitals; it shores up providers; it provides much greater access; it’s an economic stimulus for this state; it will help us with the healthcare delivery system; and for the first time it will cover families who before now were ineligible for Medicaid,” Michelle Lujan Grisham said.

Michelle’s opponent, who embraces the Ryan budget plan and has a long history of voting against Medicaid expansion, declined to take firm positions on most of the issues at tonight’s debate.

“I want to tell you that I like everything, but maybe not so much,” Janice Arnold-Jones said.

Authorized by Michelle Lujan Grisham for Congress