LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Legislature needs to act on doctor shortage

It has recently been noted in the media that much has been researched and written about doctor shortages in the United States and particularly in New Mexico.

Our doctor shortage is fixable to a great extent, but why does the New Mexico Legislature seemingly ignore the problem? In this 2025 Legislature, we have a Democrat legislator who says that this is all propaganda. Say what?! And another Dem legislator that instead of addressing the issue, wanted to know a doctor’s salary and her practice’s gross income. What?! And another Dem legislator who questioned how much physicians spend on wine. Wait, what?!!

One suggested fix for New Mexico health care practitioner shortage is for the state to join all the health care compacts with our neighboring state. Dem opponents say that allowing health care practitioners from other states to practice in New Mexico would harm state sovereignty! You've got to be kidding me! But this is the mindset of our Democrat legislators!!

HB-75, The Medical Malpractice Act of 2021, increased the cap on malpractice lawsuits and has caused medical malpractice insurance premiums to rise exponentially so now doctors cannot afford the insurance premiums; trial lawyers have no caps on the fees they charge, and that’s just the basics.

“As one prominent Democrat doctor wrote in an article written earlier this year, ‘Our governor is aware of the issues, but Democrats are often influenced by the trial attorneys because they are big contributors to the Democratic Party and, of course, they stand to gain a whole lot of money from such a large increase in the ‘cap.’” And that, folks, says it all.

The 2025 Legislature has convened. It is imperative for anyone having problems or concerns about availability of health care workers in New Mexico let our representatives know and urge them to start fixing the problem rather than ignoring it as they have in the past.

Donna Crawford

Los Lunas