New Mexico’s health care crisis fits a familiar pattern

Imagine a system within the New Mexico economy that government manages poorly and that has failed. I know, hard to believe!

Everyone agrees (as do the data) that the system is a failure. What does the Legislature do? Do they address the problem head-on making needed changes? Heck no. In New Mexico, we don’t reform broken systems whether they be our K-12 system or our health care system. That would involve taking on powerful special interests whether those be the teacher unions or trial attorneys (both of which are powerful Democrat funders). Those groups might pull money from campaigns or support the opposition in a primary or even general election.

So, what DOES happen? Left-wing Rep. Liz Thomson claims in the Albuquerque Journal that we just need to spend a few more dollars to bribe more doctors to our State. That’s also the view of left-wing gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland. So, the answer is to simply keep the system in place without addressing medical malpractice, taxes, the State’s attractiveness to doctors, or anything else. Just pour more oil and gas money (an industry both Thomson and Haaland loathe) and hope for the best.

GOP Rep. John Block has actual solutions and calls out Thomson for defending the status quo in his own opinion piece.

And, of course, RGF has its own solutions which we offered back in 2023. Those include medical malpractice reform, gross receipts tax reform to end taxes on medical providers, Medicaid reform, and overcoming licensing barriers (the proposed compacts are a good solution), telemedicine, and even improving our crime situation and overall tax code to make New Mexico friendlier to high earners like doctors.

Our friends at Think New Mexico are calling for New Mexicans to contact their legislators and the Gov. asking them to put the compacts on the agenda for the upcoming special session.