KUNM

More than half a million New Mexicans saw their monthly grocery budgets shrink significantly when the U.S. government cut off extra aid that had been doled out during the coronavirus pandemic.
The end of those programs brought a long unwinding process and a backlog of people seeking SNAP food benefits and Medicaid.

Lawmakers heard an update on New Mexico’s social safety-net programs during a committee hearing recently; the presenters had plenty of good news about clearing long waiting lists
With the end of pandemic-era support programs came a long and complicated process, which is something Kyra Ochoa, deputy secretary with the New Mexico Health Care Authority (HCA), said took a toll to work through.

“Really glad we’re out of backlog, because that was incredible pressure,” she said. “People were going home in tears at the end of their workday because they were so frustrated they couldn’t help people.”
At one point in the spring of this year, HCA had more than 18,000 applications for food assistance in the backlog and almost 14,000 Medicaid applications. Now the backlog is less than 600 applications between both programs.

Ochoa said that means people are getting approved faster, especially those who need the most help.
“They’re urgent, urgent… They don’t have anything in their fridge. You know, it’s a desperate situation. We have seven days to do that. We’re doing it in two days now,” she said. “We have 30 days to get people their regular SNAP, and we’re doing it within 15.”

She said that hold times on their phone line are down to two to five minutes now as well.
She also stressed how much these programs have made a difference in the daily lives of New Mexicans, pointing to a recent report that shows New Mexico’s child poverty rate goes down after taking into account state anti-poverty measures.