New Mexicans Deserve Access to Care

Patients and doctors share what happens when the system fails—and why their stories matter.

Why Your Story Matters

Health care policy is often shaped by numbers, talking points, and political pressure—but the human consequences are too often left out.

When patients share their experiences, policymakers see what access delays really mean: missed diagnoses, longer drives for care, families forced to leave their communities just to get treatment. When physicians speak up, they reveal the realities behind the headlines: unsustainable risk, impossible staffing shortages, and the quiet reasons doctors decide not to practice—or stay—in New Mexico.

Stories change the conversation.

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.

Patients

Patients are struggling to access timely, high-quality healthcare, facing long wait times, provider shortages, and limited services. They’re afraid that their families can’t access the care they need when they need it most or will have to travel hundreds of miles out of state to find it.

Patient-Led New Mexico hears you. We’re putting the power into your hands to create awareness, build consensus, engage with your representatives, and change policy to ensure that every New Mexican—no matter who they are or where they live—receives the timely, life-changing care they deserve. Join us now.

Providers

Providers are overworked, understaffed, struggling with high malpractice insurance rates, and battling with Medicaid and Medicare for approvals and reimbursement. This isn’t why doctors went to medical school. The patient-doctor relationship is sacred, and providers want to be able to help people. They are looking for jobs in other states with better healthcare policies in order to uphold their commitment to patients. 

Patient-Led New Mexico hears you and will collaborate with you to create better policies to support healthcare workers. We want you to stay and also to attract more clinicians to the state. We believe that New Mexico has an opportunity to lead a healthcare transformation and build a system that truly serves patients, providers, and every community in our small villages, towns, and cities.