ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernandez joined U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra to talk about health care in New Mexico with doctors and local leaders.

“We have people in American society that are falling through the health care cracks, whether the state is not providing enough resources, or because they live in rural communities, or they live in poor communities, they are being missed,” Becerra said.

Leger Fernandez and Stansbury highlighted two big problems with health care in the state – access to health care for Latinos, specifically in rural communities, and the importance of bringing qualified medical professionals to those areas.

“Lack of access to health care in rural areas, people are dying because of that,” Leger Fernandez said. “Let’s be honest, it kills. It also kills the local economy because people leave our beautiful rural areas, because they don’t have access to health care.”

The goal now is to increase the number of facilities to serve those communities and increase the number of practitioners.

“We know that you’re struggling to keep your clinics open, we know that you’re struggling to bring talent to New Mexico and to bring it up in the communities,” Stansbury said.

State leaders say they are doing what they can to address the issues, and will continue to do so.