Policy Mailer #5: Healthcare and Mental Health

More Doctors Right Here
In her career, Heather advocated for health coverage for all New Mexicans – and today far more of our people have insurance than a decade ago. However, just having an insurance card isn’t good enough. Our people need access to doctors, specialists and other providers right here at home. Heather is tired of hearing too many stories about people waiting months to see a specialist – or giving up and going out of state.

Most of us can’t afford to drive to Phoenix for a doctor. We need great healthcare here at home. Heather will fight to recruit and retain more primary providers, nurses, specialists, and technicians:

• Make New Mexico a place where providers want to practice and raise their families.
• Ensure it isn’t more expensive for doctors to practice medicine in NM than in neighboring states.
• Prepare today’s students to be tomorrow’s healthcare providers through effective career pathways starting in high school or earlier.

Protecting Healthcare Quality
We can’t just recruit more providers to New Mexico. We also must nurture and support those who are already here – taking care of our families everyday. This means looking closely at workplace conditions, nursing burnout, staffing ratios, patient loads, and ensuring that institutional policies put patients above profits. Plus we have to ensure that our hospitals – including rural, trauma, and veteran facilities – are fiscally solvent and can meet patient needs.

Protecting Women’s Health
Extremists want to undermine reproductive healthcare – from abortion care, to contraception, to fertility treatments. Heather Balas is a lifelong feminist and a longtime defender of reproductive healthcare, going back to her early career with the Kaiser Family Foundation. Heather will always stand up for New Mexico women.

Protecting Families & Women’s Health
Heather’s own lived experiences inform her commitments to families:

• It’s time for New Mexico to finally pass Paid Family Medical Leave with a bill protecting families from catastrophic health crises while keeping our small businesses running strong.
• Heather will fight for fair prescription drug prices, including appropriations to enable the newly signed drug cost transparency law to get implemented.  
• A Moms Demand Action “Gun Sense Candidate,” Heather will take action to reduce gun violence, including magazine size.
• Heather knows we don’t have nearly enough mental health providers in New Mexico due to the former governor's debacle in dismantling that system. Heather will make mental healthcare a priority in the NM Senate. She will work to ensure our schools are better prepared to identify issues early, and that police forces are well trained to handle mental health calls.
• Prevention of chronic illness is critical to healthy families. Nutrition is the foundation of individual health. Heather will support health education in schools, communities and retirement centers.  

Heather meets with union nurses about working conditions.