OPINION: Health care access is forcing us to sell our home

After decades of living in North Dakota, my husband retired in 2022 and we finally had the freedom to choose anywhere in the country to build our forever home. We chose New Mexico. We weighed scenery, culture, cost of living, local politics and pace of life. New Mexico checked most boxes and it felt like the right place for us. We built our dream home in Rio Rancho, made friends quickly and believed we had found our permanent place.

We did not see the crisis that would undo that certainty. We assumed good health insurance meant access to care, but we were devastatingly wrong.

I first felt the problem when I tried to schedule a routine mammogram, which I knew would require a referral. I called months ahead, sure planning would make it simple. Clinic after clinic told me they were not accepting new patients. The doctor I finally found left the practice before I could return. The next one left too. The pattern repeated until I lost track.

Out of options, I called our insurance company. Their advice was to go to the emergency room for a referral. That was not careless. It was the last option left in a system that can no longer meet basic needs.

Two years after moving here, I took days off to call every clinic I could find. Every office said no. When I reached the University of New Mexico, the woman on the line was sympathetic. She told me the waitlist alone would be about two years, then many more months for an appointment. She encouraged me to put our names on the list anyway. More than a year has passed, and we still have not received a call that we are off the waitlist.

Urgent care fares no better. In one day, I drove to five clinics before one could see me. When you are sick, being turned away again and again feels like a message that your life is not a priority.

My husband and I are in our 50s, healthy and fortunate to have the ability to travel out of state. That privilege is why we found an alternative. We looked into Arizona, and the difference was immediate. We found a doctor within days, appointments within a week and follow-up tests the next morning.

That clarity forced a heartbreaking choice. We have put our dream home on the market. We are leaving the life we built because we cannot risk needing care in an emergency and being told to wait months or years. One night my husband said what we had both been thinking. “If something happens, I cannot sit here and wait for help that never comes.” There was no argument left to make.

This is not just our story. Thirty two of New Mexico’s 33 counties are designated health professional shortage areas. More than 1 million people in New Mexico live where there are not enough doctors to meet demand, according to the Cicero Institute. People have died waiting for surgery. Others have left the state because cancer or other critical care was unavailable. These are avoidable tragedies.

If New Mexico wants families to stay and thrive, lawmakers must act now. Sensible malpractice reform that stabilizes the physician workforce will help keep doctors here and attract new ones. Unlimited awards may sound protective, but they harm access, lengthen wait times and push families away, or worse.

New Mexico is worth fighting for. People deserve a health care system that can protect those who call this beautiful state home.

Karn Jilek lives in Rio Rancho.