The Gross Receipts Tax and NM Health Care

An editorial in today’s Albuquerque Journal discusses ways in which the state can do a better job of attracting dentists. New Mexico has no dental school and I’m sure that is a hindrance on some level, thus measures have been taken to attract dentists to the state, but the Journal is not optimistic about one reform that would do more than others to attract dentists: stop charging them the state’s gross receipts tax!
As the Foundation has pointed out on a number of occasions here, and here as well, New Mexico’s gross receipts tax is economically-devastating with rates upwards of 8 percent in some areas. This would be bad enough if the tax were only applied to retail purchases, but the tax is also levied on services provided by dentists, doctors’ co-pays, and deductibles, and all fee-for-service procedures.
Clearly, before we embark on a “universal coverage” scheme of indeterminate cost, we should enact simple reforms like eliminating unnecessary taxation, right?