When you open a newspaper or scroll through a local news website, like the Albuquerque Journal, The Santa Fe New Mexican, the Las Cruces Sun, and many more, you will see a pattern that is impossible to ignore. A health care crisis. So many stories point to the same reality. Long waits for doctor appointments. Fewer doctors practicing in the state. Patients traveling hours for basic care. Communities left uncertain about where to turn when they need help, especially immediately.

These are not isolated headlines or one time news stories. They are recurring themes across news outlets, television reports, and opinion pages, and for patients, they reflect the very real lived experiences of everyday life.

Media coverage has put language to what many patients already feel. The anxiety that builds while waiting weeks or months to be seen. The fear of symptoms worsening before an appointment finally arrives. The frustration of being told to call back, try another provider, or go to the emergency room because no one is available.

What the reporting makes clear is that this is not about individual effort or personal responsibility. It is a system level problem that New Mexico legislators can fix. New Mexico does not have enough doctors to meet the needs of its people, and the shortage affects every part of the state.

Patients show up in these stories not as statistics, but as real people navigating uncertainty. Parents worried about their children’s care, their parents’ care, their own care. Older adults struggling to manage chronic conditions. Individuals delaying treatment because access feels out of reach.

Patient-Led NM exists because these stories matter. Media attention validates what patients have been saying for years. Access delays are real. Wait times are growing. The emotional toll is significant and anxiety is rising. What happens when we cannot wait any longer? Not everyone has the means to travel out of state.

When healthcare access dominates the news cycle, it is a signal that patients cannot be expected to absorb the consequences quietly. Listening to these stories, amplifying patient voices, and grounding policy conversations in real experiences is essential.

The headlines are not abstract. They are a mirror, and what they reflect is a system that must do better for the people it serves.