Two days before lawmakers gather for a special session on Medicaid, Republican senators in New Mexico are urging their colleagues to confront what they say is an even more urgent crisis: the state’s broken medical malpractice system.
At a forum on Monday in Bernalillo, the Senate GOP’s five-member “Medical Malpractice Legislative Task Force” heard from doctors, patients, and state officials about the crushing burden malpractice costs have placed on New Mexico’s health care system. The message was clear: without reform, doctors will continue fleeing the state, leaving patients without critical care.
“It’s time we change things in New Mexico,” said Sen. Craig Brandt (R-Rio Rancho). “It’s time we make it where our doctors can stay here, so that when we get sick, or our family gets sick, or loved ones get sick, they can be treated here and not have to be flown to another state to survive.”
Republicans blasted Democratic leaders and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for refusing to put malpractice reform on the agenda during the upcoming session. Brandt laid the blame squarely on the influence of trial attorneys—powerful allies of Democratic leadership who profit from the current system. “Trial lawyers are the reason reform is blocked,” Brandt charged, echoing a frustration long shared by physicians and patients.
Health Department Secretary Gina DeBlassie acknowledged the depth of the problem. She testified that New Mexico’s rate of malpractice claims per physician is now two to three times higher than that of neighboring states, including Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and Utah. She admitted the state has become an increasingly risky place to practice medicine.
That assessment was echoed by Kaye Green, CEO of a rural Roosevelt County hospital, who pointed to the lack of caps on payouts and attorney fees. Without limits, she said, New Mexico remains wide open for jackpot lawsuits — known as “jackpot justice” – that drive up insurance premiums and push doctors out. Trial attorneys run the show at the Legislature, with the most powerful committee chairs some of their most ardent supporters, if not trial attorneys themselves.
The statistics are grim. According to the National Physicians Institute, 248 doctors have left New Mexico in the past five years. The American Urological Association recently ranked New Mexico third-lowest in the nation for urologists per capita, with only 60 practicing in the state.
Sen. Jay Block (R-Rio Rancho) illustrated the human toll. He recounted his father’s battle with prostate cancer, noting that Albuquerque, a city of 560,000, has only 15 practicing urologists. Meanwhile, Durango, Colorado—with a fraction of Albuquerque’s population—has eight. “We’re talking months before people can get treatment for prostate cancer,” Block warned, describing the situation as a growing crisis.
The forum underscored what Republicans describe as a dangerous political choice: Democrats siding with trial lawyers instead of patients. Without reform to rein in runaway lawsuits and insurance costs, GOP senators argue, New Mexico will remain a hostile place for doctors, and ordinary families will continue to pay the price.
That begs the question, why do people continue to vote for these democrats?
Trial lawyers, ie. “parasites” are helping keep NM a “Third World State” in order to keep their pockets lined. The world needs Doctors, lawyers, not so much.
in NM the citizen obeys and works for the govt , the govt does not work for the citizen. no matter what the dems do, they know they will be re-elected. one party democrat rule is a failure, and New Mexicans love failure. All that matters is the trial lawyers in the legislature sue doctors and hospitals for more money and get rich while we get sick.
keller with a strong lead for mayor. more failure ahead !! way to go Burque !! vote for your own demise !!
Tort reform is the only way to stop the loss of doctors from our state. Our small rural hospitals are struggling mightily to keep their doors open because of frivolous lawsuits and huge payouts by the insurance companies that refuse to fight, but would rather settle. Attorneys in the state legislature have made New Mexico into a frivolous lawsuit state that guarantees a better payoff than any lottery or raffle.
This is not only causing doctors to leave the state, it is affecting the
quality of care given by the doctors that remain.
Doctors feel forced to follow state and federal guidelines even when they know that those guidelines don’t fit a particular case.
Guidelines are just that, guidance. They are not meant to be a one size
fits all treatment plan. But doctors are now stuck between doing what’s
right for a particular patient, and weighing that against how often they
deviate from guidelines. Because they know that sooner or later it will
be used against them in a court of law, regardless of evidence of improved outcomes for patients.
good luck getting a doctor appointment. I waited 3 months to see orthopedics for a back injury. 3 pain filled months. thanks NM trial lawyers.
TAZ — parasites have taken offense being compared to lawyers. They arent that bad. 99 percent of lawyers make the other 1 percent look bad.
The proof is in the pudding. Democrats are on a mission to destroy what’s left of the state. Starting with your health care. You voted for them now take the pain.
Isn’t it the 1-5 percent of the people that caused most of the misery in this country, whether it be crime, the far left, bad choices in elected leadership, Hollywood etc.
It’s time to hold those accountable on November 4th. Thank you for those voices representing the Republican party. A vote for a democRAT is a vote for a Rat.
As long as the trial lawyers control the legislature New Mexico will never see true medical care reform. Every time the malpractice limits are raised it is the trial lawyers that profit. We even have members and associates of the trial lawyers running this state and making decisions that puts more money in the pockets of this group. I feel that if you are connected to the trial lawyers you must recuse yourself from any decision that profits you and this organization. This will never happen until New Mexicans wake up and see the ugly truth of what is going on and who is pulling the strings.
Follow the money.
New Mexico is on life support.
New Mexico is sick. Quick, call a doctor!
I completely agree with KenB’s observations above.
I hear you all and agree, I am ready to move and NM does not care to keep retirees that make 6 figures and have no kids in schools and are not on the dole. Our saving grace is we are less than a mile from Texas. So keep voting democrat and destroy NM. We will keep spending our money in Texas. I do not think Mandami can destroy NY city more than the democrats will destroy NM.
My wife was murdered at Lovelace. Lawyers want easy cases to make big money but not work the hard cases. Judges are corrupt in all areas. If you go against big pharma the judges are captured. Even “Expert Witnesses have conflicts of interest or on the take as well. The American Healthcare system is corrupted by big money and corrupt government. Might as well leave NM.
Keep voting for Communists and you will get your ‘Utopia’.
Unless these situations specifically affect these democrats, they
will keep voting for this corruption. They don’t care about your medical problems, they don’t care about crime, they don’t care about kids. It’s all emotional-all about me that they care about.
THE NEW WELCOME TO NEW MEXICO THE THIRD WORLD COUNTRY RUN BY IDIOTS AND SATAN WORSHIPERS
The problem is the media ! If 60% of low information voters were informed that they can’t get a Dr because the people they vote for are lawyers who profit from the law suits against doctors they would rethink there vote. The doctors that stay in NM deserve to be treated better. Our 100% democrat control has got to be ended. Malpractice insurance is the obstacle to more Doctors in NM and the democrats are responsible for failure!
Frankly, I am so sorry for your loss.
There is another consequence besides doctors fleeing the state – NM will never be able to recruit or keep the best & brightest, attracting only losers who got into med school because of DEI &/or graduated @ the bottom of their class, such that they can only find a job in this pathetic, apathetic state. Such “doctors” have no business wielding a thermometer, much less a scalpel.