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New Mexico's 270,000 new Medicaid recipients at risk

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — With President-elect Donald Trump promising to do away with the Affordable Care Act, Republican states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the law are left to wonder what will happen to their programs. Second-term Republican New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has offered vague assurances that people won't be left without health insurance in a state with one of the highest Medicaid enrollment rates in the country. Many GOP-led states that joined the expansion may push for it to be kept. Out of 2.1 million new Mexico residents, more than 270,000 people have signed up for Medicaid since Martinez agreed to expand the program in 2014 under provisions of the President Barack Obama's health care law. New Mexico state government is grappling with how to pay its small share of federally subsidized Medicaid expenses amid a state budget crisis linked to a downturn in the oil industry.