Claudia King Penasco, NM created on Thu October 24, 2013

My name is Claudio King. I have been in northern New Mexico for 40 years and in the Penasco area for 37. I’m actually retired and I’m going to be 70 years old and I work as a volunteer now. Previously I worked for the Spot for Community Wellness, which was the face of Picuris Penasco Community Coalition, we had a wellness center there in Penasco. We did a lot of work with human services and mental health, agencies, and also referred, or helped navigate people for medical assistance. Such as hearing aids, which is really hard for people to obtain, or eye surgeries, if you don’t have insurance. Mostly working with low income people.

I think it depends on their age, most children I know of have Medicaid, or pregnant women in some cases. The ages between 19 and 65 are pretty much uninsured. Most of them. Because there is so much unemployment here, a lot people work part time, or people travel for work. Those are the people I have seen utilize human services the most.

Like I said between ages 19 and 65, those are the young adults and the mature adults and the older adults that are responsible for the people that are already covered. You know, the children and the seniors. So, that’s got to be a great impact. Those people who are the nurturers, when they go down who takes care of their children or their parents, or community members that they would be involved with?

If community members are approached and it is explained to them, and they have the right documents (you know a lot of people don’t have their birth certificates or have a hard time getting their paperwork) I don’t know what the requirements are, but if you can help them get their paperwork than it’s no problem. A lot of people have challenges because they’ve been incarcerated, or are on probation, so they’re very uneasy about talking about their personal life sometimes, because sometimes it’s been really tragic. But, documentation sometimes is the most difficult. People do whatever they can, hustle here hustle there. I don’t meant illegally all the time, or legally. But, as far as income goes sometimes that’s difficult to document. People are in dire straits. It’s hard. I mean food is hard right now, rent, utilities.

If they can get Medicaid, then people are free to go to the clinics and get what they need. I’m not sure what the form looks like, the requirements, or restrictions are, but for that age group from 19 to 65, it’s going to make a lot of difference.

I’m glad something like this is happening.