Medical Malpractice Reforms already take hit in Health Committee

HB 99 is the first of several bills relating to medical malpractice reform in New Mexico’s Legislature. With bipartisan support including from liberal stalwart Democrat Christine Chandler it is one of the better chances the New Mexico Legislature has to make needed reforms to the broken system.

Alas, it did not go well due to an amendment supported by the “progressive” Democrats on the Committee who changed the bill to NOT include investor-owned (as opposed to government owned hospitals). So, as it stands, only a small fraction of the hospitals in New Mexico would actually be helped by bill.

The hearing was poorly run and confusing with  the addition of the amendment being part of the problem. It was also unclear from the discussion whether non-profit hospitals like Presbyterian would be under the plan as amended (or not). It sounded like they would not, but that seems contradictory to the intention which is to penalize those supposedly “greedy” for profits.

While the policy is bad and ultimately harmful to efforts to address the medical provider shortage, the reality is that New Mexico’s legislative Democrats (with a few exceptions) don’t feel the need to make bold policy changes for the betterment of our state because they win elections no matter what they do.

Whatever happens for HB 99 and other medical malpractice bills we need legislators in both parties to prioritize the goal of achieving needed reforms and bringing more medical providers to New Mexico while retaining those that are here. Clearly, this is not at the top of Democrats’ list yet.