Understanding why NM physicians are leaving

New Mexico’s Legislative Finance Committee undertook a worthy effort recently when they surveyed doctors throughout New Mexico and found that 2/3rds of physicians are considering leaving the state. This is obviously a very troubling data point and one that should result in an “all of government” attempt to change.

While legislative Democrats have agreed to enter the physician compact and there is discussion about tackling medical malpractice reform there is simply not the level of urgency among Democrat legislators to address the issue in its many components. And, of course there are myriad reasons for doctors and their potential reasons for leaving. Clearly, as the survey notes below the main issue is New Mexico’s broken medical malpractice system.

Gov. MLG appears to be on the right side here, but as she has said, “there are too many (Democrat) trial attorneys in the Legislature. Sens. Peter Wirth (the majority leader), Joe Cervantes, and Katie Duhigg are just three of the most prominent obstacles to medical malpractice reform, but as long as Democrats are in the majority and keep these people in positions of leadership they will continue to make reform difficult.

And then there are the two 51% issues: “quality of life” and “compensation.” These are driven by crime, failing schools, overreliance on Medicaid, taxation (both GRT and income) and a lot of the “secondary” issues the Rio Grande Foundation discusses regularly, but which are too often ignored in discussions over the medical provider shortage. The Legislature shows no signs of addressing these issues in the upcoming 30-day session.

So, will this report and the continued public pressure we’ve seen in recent years be enough to bring needed change? We expect some change on the margins, but a general unwillingness by the trial attorneys and their allies to make big changes. Other policy issues (aside from one compact) seem to be off the table for the time being.