OPINION: Shame on the Legislature for not trying to reduce alcohol use

As a lifelong Democrat who has worked on health matters for 40 years, I am appalled by the Legislature’s failure (again) to pass well-known, evidence-based measures to reduce alcohol consumption and increase the health workforce.

The governor says that improving public safety and reducing interpersonal violence are two of her central concerns. The evidence is clear, however, that she won’t achieve this unless excess alcohol consumption is reduced through increased taxes, among other measures, since alcohol is so strongly associated with interpersonal violence.

The governor has taken a number of measures to improve the health of New Mexicans. At the end of the day, however, key improvements in health services will not occur without increasing the number of health care providers. Joining interstate compacts on health care providers should have been an easy way to do this. It is also clear that the exceptionally high rate of malpractice suits in New Mexico is a major impediment to providers willingness to work here. If other states can enact malpractice policies that protect patient rights, while not becoming barriers to the recruitment of health care providers, we should be able to do the same.

The House Democrats recently issued a press release highlighting the accomplishments of the recently ended legislative session. This included their saying that they had passed: “a modest increase to taxes on alcoholic beverages, directing funds to address alcohol related harms across New Mexico.” This is like putting a tiny bandage on a massively bleeding wound, since New Mexico has led the U.S. for many years in the rate of alcohol-related deaths.

I would have preferred if the House Democrat’s press release had said something like the following on alcohol and on the health care workforce:

“Beloved New Mexicans, good luck staying safe and getting health care. Despite a promising start to the session, we decided to pass very minimal ‘alcohol taxes’ suggested to us by the alcohol lobby. In addition, following the ‘advice’ of the trial lawyers, we also decided to forego reform of medical malpractice and agreeing to the interstate compacts on health.”

In both areas, New Mexico has become a model of how NOT to serve its people. Please do what you can to throw out legislators of either party who continue to vote against evidence-based policies to reduce the harms of alcohol and increase the health care workforce.