Journal Poll: Majority of voters report difficulty accessing health care providers

A sizable majority of Albuquerque voters reported having difficulty getting an appointment with a health care provider within the past year, a new Journal Poll found.

Difficulty finding a health care provider also appears to be more of a problem for younger people than for their parents and grandparents, the survey found.

The survey found that 59% of proven and likely voters reported that they or a family member had difficulty getting an appointment with a primary health care provider or a specialist in the past year. Another 40% of those surveyed said they had no difficulty finding a provider.

The finding adds heft to anecdotal reports that access to health care is a problem for a sizable share of the public, said Brian Sanderoff, president of Albuquerque-based Research and Polling Inc., which conducted the poll.

“We’ve established that among Albuquerque likely voters, nearly 60% have said they’ve had difficulty in the last year gaining access to a physician when needed,” he said. “And so it sort of validates the concern that’s been expressed by many people about access to medical care.”

New Mexico has been wrestling with a worsening shortage of health care providers, and lawmakers for years have debated possible fixes, such as reform of the state’s medical malpractice laws.

The state experienced a 30% decline in primary care physicians, from 2,360 in 2017 to 1,649 in 2021, according to a 2024 report by Think New Mexico, a nonprofit think tank.

Younger people report barriers

The survey also identified significant differences by age groups. Among voters 18 to 34, nearly three quarters — 73% — reported difficulties finding a primary care provider or a specialist in the past year. Only 25% of younger voters said they had no trouble finding a provider.

That contrasts significantly with the experience reported by older voters.

Among those 65 and older, fewer than half — 47% — had difficulty finding providers, the survey found. Slightly more than half reported having no difficulty.

The survey results likely reflect the changing relationship people have with the medical system as they age, Sanderoff said.

“It’s very difficult to find a new doctor, or to find a new specialist, if you don’t have an established patient relationship,” he said. “Younger people are less likely to have long-term relationships with physicians. If they’re needing a specialist or even a new doctor, they might have a harder time hooking into the medical system.”

Older people “are more likely to have established patient-doctor relationships,” Sanderoff said.

In 2023, New Mexico needed an additional 334 primary care physicians, 5,704 registered nurses and clinical nurse specialists and 4,967 emergency medical technicians to bring the state up to national benchmarks, according to Think New Mexico.

New Mexico also has struggled to retain its workforce. About half of New Mexico’s family physicians are 55 or older and will retire in the next 10 years, according to a report from the Robert Graham Center, a Washington, D.C.-based policy research group.

The survey also revealed a partisan split, with 66% of Republican voters reporting difficulty accessing health care providers, compared to 52% of Democrats.

Sanderoff said the partisan result is difficult to explain. It could be that at the end of a lengthy survey about political issues, Republicans may be more frustrated with a variety of issues, including health care access, he said.

Republican lawmakers also tend to support reforms to the state’s medical malpractice laws as a means of reducing New Mexico’s expensive malpractice insurance premiums. The partisan nature of the medical malpractice issue may result in Republicans expressing frustration with health care access, Sanderoff said.

Methodology

The Journal Poll is based on a random sample of 514 voters who cast ballots in the 2021 and/or 2023 local government election, and a sample of adults who registered to vote since January 2024 and who said they are likely to vote in the upcoming local government election.

To ensure a representative sample, Research & Polling Inc. sets quotas for race, gender and age, and weights by education level and party affiliation, if necessary, based on traditional voting patterns in local government elections.

The poll was conducted Sept. 19 through Sept. 26. The voter sample size of 514 has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. The margin of error grows for subsamples.

All interviews were conducted by live, professional interviewers, based in Albuquerque, with multiple callbacks to individuals that did not initially answer the phone.

Both cellphone numbers (96%) and landlines (4%) of likely voters were used.