In Santo Domingo Pueblo, Anthony Yepa serves as a health care explainer.
As an adviser for the pueblo’s Hopa Health Council — named for a Keres word meaning “the people” — Yepa helps members of his community understand complex state and federal health care policy.
People ask: What’s in New Mexico’s more than $11 billion budget? What’s a managed care organization? How might federal health care cuts affect Santo Domingo Pueblo residents?
Yepa answers.
“That’s what health councils do — from the Roundhouse to the home houses in our communities — because there is a lack of transparency. There is a lack of reach from the state Legislature,” he said.
There’s a health council in each of New Mexico’s 33 counties, plus 10 more in tribal communities. They work to tackle major public health problems — like substance use and food insecurity, suicide and gun violence — in ways specific to each community’s cultural, political and resource context, while sharing on-the-ground perspectives with state and local officials.
But the health councils are lobbying now to avoid a lack of state funding in the coming fiscal year, said Valeria Alarcón, executive director of the New Mexico Alliance of Health Councils.
The latest version of House Bill 2 — the state budget bill, which passed the House on Wednesday and heads to the Senate — doesn’t include any funding for the health councils. The alliance had pushed for an $8 million appropriation to sustain health council programs and establish new tribal councils.
However, the budget bill is far from its final form; it’ll still be subject to revision by the Senate. Alarcón said she’s feeling “hopeful” as the alliance pushes to add $4 million for health councils — a sum consistent with the councils’ appropriation this year and $1 million more than the health councils received in 2024 — to the budget on the Senate side.
It’s the latest chapter in a yearslong effort by the alliance to secure additional funding for health councils’ work.
“We know that our legislators value the critical work of health councils,” Alarcón said. “They are the lifeline for our communities across the state — particularly tribal, rural, remote areas of New Mexico.”
Health care is among the state’s major priorities in the current version of HB 2, a bipartisan group of members of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee said Wednesday during a news conference.
The budget includes more than $220 million for initiatives aimed at lowering health care costs as well as significant appropriations to expand the state’s physician workforce by doubling the size of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, increasing pay for medical residents and fellows and greatly expanding the state’s student loan repayment program for doctors, among other initiatives.
“We know that access to affordable, quality health care is top of mind for New Mexicans, and it’s a top priority in our budget this year,” said Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque.
While the current version of the state budget doesn’t include specific appropriations for health councils, Rep. Nathan Small, D-Las Cruces, the chair of House Appropriations and Finance, said the councils will be able to take part in funding set aside for ongoing behavioral health reforms — which will bring between $5 million and $10 million in grant funding to each of New Mexico’s 13 judicial districts.
“That is new money, and health councils, I think, are well poised since they are connected locally to work with [that],” Small said.
Mental health awareness and substance use prevention are among the priorities for the Hidalgo County Health Council in New Mexico’s bootheel, said Joni Kerr, who works with the health council as a coordinator for the Substance Prevention Network of Hidalgo County and director of a local youth association.
But Kerr said the health council is also trying to tackle food and housing insecurity in a county of about 4,000 residents, where housing options are limited and the nearest grocery store selling fresh produce can be 45 minutes away.
“We don’t want to give up on our community,” Kerr said. “We’re willing to do what it takes to be able to make sure that the people in our community are served.”
Margaret Chavez, coordinator for the Hidalgo County Health Council, argued the council needs sustainable funding to address those big issues and keep moving forward.
“This is our monthly discussion, our daily discussion via email: ‘What’s our next priority?’ ” Chavez said. “Because it’s a lot. There’s a lot of priorities, and we’re tackling them all at once.”