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

Our doctor shortage is fixable to a great extent, but why does the NM Legislature seemingly ignore the problem? In this 2025 Legislature, we have a Democrat legislator who says that this is all propaganda. Say what?! Another Dem legislator, 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 the New Mexico health care practitioner shortage is for the state to join all the health care compacts with our neighboring state. Democrat opponents say allowing health care practitioners from other states to practice in NM would harm state sovereignty! You gotta be kidding me!

But this is the mind-set 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 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 is in session. Anyone having problems or concerns about the availability of healthcare workers in NM should let their Representatives and Senators know their concerns and urge them to fix the problem rather than ignoring it as they have in the past.

Donna Crawford worked for the U.S. Forest Service and Southwest Airlines and is now retired.