LAS VEGAS — Ladies and gentlemen of New Mexico, we are in the midst of a health-care crisis in New Mexico, especially in Northern New Mexico.
Interestingly, the cause of this crisis is not some new disease or pandemic. In the last three years, we have lost a large number of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers. The primary cause of this great departure from our state is that, in March 2021 the legislature passed, and the governor signed, legislation that has made it difficult, if not impossible, to practice medicine in New Mexico.
Since that time, we have lost over 30% of our doctors. State analysts report a deficit of 5,000 in health-care providers in New Mexico.
I have been a lifelong Democrat. I am sorry to say that it was actually a majority of Democrats, along with some Republicans, in the legislature, and our Democratic governor, who are responsible for this looming catastrophe.
The legislation in question is House Bill 75, which was passed on Feb. 16, 2021, primarily with Democratic support. What HB 75 effectively did was increase liability insurance rates so high that many doctors could no longer afford it.
There were many physicians who could not even find a liability insurance carrier that was willing to insure them. The effect of this is a great loss of physician manpower in New Mexico. Many simply left the state and others retired.
As a possible fix, it has been suggested that we increase class sizes at New Mexico medical schools. This simply will not work because many, if not most, those newly graduated doctors are choosing not to stay here because of the very hostile climate. Currently, New Mexico is ranked as one of the worst states in the country in which to practice medicine. In the last few years New Mexico has been the only state in the union to experience a net loss of physicians. Every other state has had an increase in the number of physicians practicing in their states.
The governor recently embarked on a $400,000 ad campaign in Texas in a hopeless attempt to recruit physicians to New Mexico. Without repeal of HB 75 and malpractice and tort reform in New Mexico, health-care providers will stay away.
So who has benefited from passage of this legislation? Certainly not the people who are victims of unfortunate medical outcomes. Studies have shown that successful plaintiffs in medical malpractice lawsuits end up getting as little as 11% of jury awards. All of the rest goes to the attorneys. After the malpractice attorneys get their usual 40% commission and skim off the top any and all supposed expenses of bringing the case to trial, there is very little left for the patient who has suffered an injury.
This is an injustice, and quite frankly a scam perpetrated by the trial attorneys. The level of greed of these trial attorneys is astounding.
It is a shame that many of our representatives in the legislature, and the governor, have forgotten who they really represent. In fact, it is common for the trial attorneys to brag that they have the Democrats in the legislature and the governor in their “hip pocket.”
Approximately 45 years ago, New Mexico was in a similar situation because of a medical malpractice crisis. The solution was to pass legislation that required that any medical malpractice action would first be evaluated by a panel of four attorneys and three physicians to decide if the claim had any merit. Thus, the Medical Legal Panel was established.
For many decades to follow the system worked well because it weeded out frivolous claims. Now, because the potential awards and payouts are so astronomically high, malpractice attorneys virtually always ignore the findings of the Medical Legal Panel and file lawsuits anyway. This is because the odds are that if they file 100 frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals, if even one is successful, then the potential payout far exceeds any losses incurred from the other 99 frivolous lawsuits.
What is the solution to this health-care manpower emergency? We need to implement policies that attract and retain physicians, nurses and other health care providers. The most obvious initial solution is medical malpractice reform.
Currently physicians in our state are potentially liable for up to $4 million and this will soon increase to $6,000,000. We need to reduce the malpractice cap to something more in line with other states, such as Texas, which has a cap of $250,000. We need to reduce the statute of limitations to two years as it is in other states. Plaintiff attorneys who choose to file frivolous lawsuits and lose in court, despite an adverse finding of the medical legal panel, should be required to pay the legal expenses of the defendant.
Finally, a cap needs to be imposed on the commission that trial attorneys demand to a more reasonable level, such as 20%. We need to stop the scam of trial attorneys skimming award money off the top for fabricated law office expenses related to the case, on top of their 40% commission.
None of this will be possible unless those Democrats, and the few Republicans, in the legislature who supported HB 75 are held accountable. It is really up to voters to sharply question their senators and representatives in the legislature as to how they voted and intend to vote in the future on these issues.
Politicians in Santa Fe need to be held accountable to their constituents.
Dr. G. Michael Lopez, MD, is a physician in Las Vegas who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination to the New Mexico Senate earlier this year.