There is something significant standing in the way of a better quality of life for all New Mexicans.That something is the Trial Lawyer Lobby and their loyal allies in the Roundhouse.The trial lawyers in New Mexico have hijacked the legislative process to effectively prevent access to medical care. Their underlying intention is to enrich payouts to trial lawyers through the legal system. The consequence of their legislative efforts is that the rest of us are severely harmed by loss of access to the medical care we desperately need. The New Mexico Medical Society notes New Mexico has some of the highest amounts of medical malpractice lawsuits in the country, and medical malpractice premiums are significantly higher in New Mexico compared with other states.
New Mexico lost more than 600 primary care physicians between 2017 and 2020. The catastrophic House Bill 75 (sponsored by a former president of the NM Trial Lawyers Association), passed in 2021 to enrich trial lawyer payouts, only worsened the crisis. Even doctors travel out of state to see a primary care provider. And we can’t forget that our own governor leaves the state for knee surgery.
But this year, it got a lot worse.
HB 243 was introduced to make New Mexico part of an Interstate Medical Licensure Compact. This compact includes 41 states, D.C., and the Territory of Guam. This compact would allow medical professionals properly trained in other states to work in New Mexico.
The legislation passed the House unanimously, due to the heightened need of a drastic physician shortage. The bill was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which I serve, and the Democrat trial attorneys immediately began to rip the bill apart by eliminating key provisions in the bill. In particular, they insisted on removing language that would have provided confidentiality for material provided to the boards to the interstate commission, and they removed two subsections of the compact that would make officers and employees of the interstate commission immune from civil liability for unintentional acts within their official capacities.
The expert lawyer representing the Medical Compact responded with a three-page letter to the Judiciary Committee’s recommended amendments and clearly articulated that if they insisted on including these amendments, New Mexico would not be allowed into the Interstate Medical Compact. I personally met with the Senate Judiciary Committee representative to see if an agreement could be reached. I asked if they would be willing to accept the qualified immunity clause in the bill. The answer was “NO.” The bill never made it out of committee. New Mexico will not be part of the Medical Licensure Compact. And New Mexicans will continue to suffer as a result.
Forty-one states accepted this language in order to allow access to doctors from other states, New Mexico trial attorneys felt it was more important to be able to receive their highest-in-the-nation malpractice settlements over better access to medical care for the people of New Mexico. They care more about lining their pockets than getting better healthcare for the rest of us.
What can we do? Start by repealing House Bill 75 and return the medical malpractice cap back to pre-2021 levels of $250K per occurrence instead of the $6,000,000 it will be in 2026. We must break the grip of the trial lawyers in our legislature, especially in the powerful Judiciary committees.
While trial attorneys are a necessary evil in our litigious society, lawsuits are clogging the arteries of the healthcare system – driving up costs and reducing access to care.
Senator Anthony “Ant” Thornton, Ph.D. is a retired aerospace engineer who, amongst other projects, developed hypersonic weapons at Sandia National Laboratories. Elected in 2024, he represents Senate District 19, which covers Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe, and Torrance counties.
