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Health care policy is often shaped by numbers, talking points, and political pressure—but the human consequences are too often left out.
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A short message can make a meaningful difference. Tell your legislator that New Mexicans deserve policies that put patients first and keep care close to home.
Why Patient-Centered Reform Matters Now in New Mexico
New Mexico’s healthcare system is at a critical juncture. Provider shortages, limited access to specialists, and unsustainable medical malpractice policies are creating gaps that affect the health and stability of every community. These pressures are not abstract,...
What Patients Are Living With Every Day
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...
Patients pay the price for lack of bold reform
Every fall, New Mexicans roast their chile, watch balloons rise and breathe the piñon-scented air. Yet even as we celebrate tradition, too many families wait months for medical appointments, drive hours for care, or face the heartbreak of losing their doctors. Behind...
New Mexico’s health care crisis is forcing military personnel to decline assignments
About a year after Christine Calhoun and her family moved to Cannon Air Force Base, her 5-year-old son woke up from a nap and didn’t remember her. “It was horrifying,” Calhoun said. In Clovis, the closest city to Cannon, there are no pediatric neurologists. That...
The Price of Delay: A Doctor’s Battle to Save a Patient’s Foot
A New Mexico doctor fought for his patient through months of system delays—only to see a treatable condition become a lifelong disability.
Preventable Amputation: A Nurse Practitioner’s Story of Loss
In rural New Mexico, a hardworking rancher lived with undiagnosed hypertension and diabetes. Like so many others, he couldn’t find a primary care provider. Long waits and limited access led him to delay care—until a foot injury sent him to the ER.
By then, it was too late.
Forced to Flee: A 10-Year-Old’s Journey for Care Out of State
When no pediatric rheumatologists were available in New Mexico, one family drove 900 miles so their child wouldn’t suffer permanent damage.
Myth 7: The malpractice system is working fine — the problem is just corporate mismanagement.
Fact: If the system were functioning well, we would not see: Persistent hospital and clinic closures Specialty care shortages Multi-month wait times A shrinking insurer pool Medical service lines being discontinued Rising out-of-state patient migration for basic care...
Myth 6: Malpractice payouts primarily go to injured patients.
Fact: New Mexico’s high claim frequency and severity mean a growing share of dollars is going to: Litigation costs Defense expenses Insurance losses This raises premiums for doctors and hospitals and contributes to service reductions — especially in rural communities....
Myth 5: Expanding medical school enrollment will solve the physician shortage.
Fact: Training more physicians is important, but retention is the real challenge. According to the UNM School of Medicine Location Report (2024): Only ~52% of physicians who complete both medical school and residency at UNM stay in New Mexico. National data (AAMC)...
Myth 4: New Mexico has a healthy malpractice insurance market.
Fact: New Mexico’s market is widely recognized as distressed. Only a very small number of insurers still write malpractice policies in our state. Several carriers have exited in recent years due to unpredictable risk and high verdict severity. Fewer insurers mean...
Myth 3: Malpractice reform is driven by corporate hospitals looking to avoid accountability.
Fact: The biggest driver of recent reform efforts is market instability, not corporate preference. Independent actuaries (WTW/MPLA) show: New Mexico’s five-year average loss ratio is 175% (insurers pay $1.75 for every $1.00 collected). The U.S. average is ~75%. New...
Myth 2: Hospitals shouldn’t be included in the Medical Malpractice Act — the law should apply to doctors only.
Fact: Modern medicine is delivered through integrated hospital systems, and most physicians work inside them. A significant majority of New Mexico physicians are hospital-employed or hospital-based (higher than national trends). Nationally, only 47% of physicians...
Myth 1: New Mexico has plenty of doctors — more per capita than neighboring states — so physician shortages aren’t real.
Myth 1: New Mexico has plenty of doctors — more per capita than neighboring states — so physician shortages aren’t real. Fact: Licensing numbers do not reflect how many physicians are actually available to treat New Mexico patients. New Mexico’s license rolls include...
Lawmakers blast law professor who claimed New Mexico doesn’t have doctor shortage
By Daniel J. ChacónA Northwestern University law professor who appeared before New Mexico lawmakers to discuss the effects of medical malpractice reform kicked off his presentation Tuesday by calling himself an equal opportunity annoyer. “Sometimes my research annoys...
Myth-Busting: We Don’t Have an Ownership Crisis. We Have an Access Crisis.
Ownership isn’t the issue—access is. New Mexico’s healthcare crisis isn’t about who runs our hospitals. It’s about whether patients can actually get care. Here’s what’s really driving doctors out of the state—and what we can do to fix it.
What Patients Are Living With Every Day
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...
How Healthcare Instability Affects New Mexico’s Economy and Everyday Quality of Life
Across New Mexico, people carry stories about what it means to build a life here. Some grew up in communities where everyone knows each other by name. Others arrived from different states or different countries, drawn by opportunity, family, or the promise of a...
Why New Mexico Can’t Keep Its Doctors — And What We Can Do About It
New Mexico is facing one of the worst physician shortages in the country—hurting access to care, straining our healthcare system, and putting patients at risk. But the real crisis isn’t just how few doctors we have. It’s how few stay. Here’s what you need to know...
Malpractice Reform in New Mexico: What’s at Stake for Patients and Providers
New Mexico is one of the toughest places in the country to be a doctor—or a patient trying to find one. While headlines often focus on workforce shortages or rural hospital closures, one overlooked driver of this crisis is the state's high-risk medical malpractice...
Solving New Mexico’s Health Care Workforce Crisis
With nearly every county designated a Health Professional Shortage Area, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without bold policy action, New Mexico risks losing even more providers to burnout, relocation, or early retirement—further deepening a crisis that already threatens patient outcomes.
Myth-Busting: We Don’t Have an Ownership Crisis. We Have an Access Crisis.
Ownership isn’t the issue—access is. New Mexico’s healthcare crisis isn’t about who runs our hospitals. It’s about whether patients can actually get care. Here’s what’s really driving doctors out of the state—and what we can do to fix it.