OPINION: Health care reform must strike balance between patient victims and access to care

Patients Primero is a grassroots group of concerned citizens who vote. We watch committee meetings. We read reports and research the issues causing our health care crisis.

Already frustrated and afraid because medical care may not be available or accessible when we need it, we read the horrifying report of the Legislative Finance Committee: Sixty-five percent of our doctors are thinking about leaving New Mexico Why? Fully 83% cite the threat of punitive damage associated with medical malpractice as the reason for needing to practice elsewhere.

The question for our elected officials: Do you believe this report? Or are you going to dispute it and try to sweep it under the table as you have done with previous reports and testimony provided at committee meetings?

The public face of opposition to balanced malpractice reform is New Mexico Safety Over Profit (NMSOP), which asserts that New Mexicans are not suffering from a shortage of physicians but rather from an ailing health care system made up of corporate hospitals who put profits over patient safety ( Jan. 18 Sunday Journal ). Such a statement is willful ignorance. The data are clear; the stories of patients who must wait for months or leave the state for appointments are clear; the results of a survey completed by Patients Primero are clear; physicians who report waitlists of more than 300 patients and are unable or not able to accept any new patients are clear. There is no question that we have a dire shortage of physicians.

New Mexico’s laws make it difficult, if not impossible, for small independent practices to survive. Wanting to serve patients but financially strapped, doctors take jobs at large health systems or leave the state. In New Mexico, the number of independent providers who actively see patients has fallen from 1,145 to 674 between 2019 and 2024, (Physicians Advocacy Institute, as reported by New Mexico in Depth, Jan. 19).

The threat of punitive damages looms large for physicians because they can put personal assets at risk. Feliz Rael, president of the state Trial Lawyers Association, argues against including punitive damages in malpractice reform, saying she is aware of one case in which a doctor had to pay out of their personal assets. According to The Doctor’s Company, punitive damages are included in 92% of lawsuits filed. Is Rael unaware that the threat of punitive damages is a deliberate strategy to push physicians to settle rather than risk their personal finances?

Those who oppose a balanced malpractice environment repeat unsubstantiated claims that injured patients would be denied access to justice. Of course injured patients must have access to justice when malpractice occurs; of course patients must be compensated for harm done. Nothing in the proposed reforms would deny access to justice. The reforms establish a balanced system. We need a system that allows physicians to care for patients, provides access to health care for all New Mexicans, and compensates patients who have been harmed.

Legislators must remember that they represent 2.1 million New Mexicans. The needs of patients who have been harmed must be balanced with access to health care for everyone. Far too many residents cannot even travel to Albuquerque for care, much less out of state; nor should they have to.

Addressing our out-of-balance health care environment cannot wait. New Mexico faces a physician shortage that worsens daily. The state is projected to be 2,118 doctors short by 2030 (Cicero Institute Report, 2024).

Living in New Mexico should not be a death sentence because legislators fail to act to balance the malpractice system.

Kathe Stark is with Patients Primero, a growing grassroots group of patients working to solve the health care worker shortage in New Mexico.