Walt Rubel Commentary: A lot not to like on both sides of health debate

The big fight in next year’s legislative session is shaping up to be a battle between an unlikeable force and a detestable object.

One one side we have greedy, soulless corporate health care executives. On the other side we have greedy, soulless trial lawyers. Let the low blows begin.

It won’t be a fair fight. Lawyers rule the Legislature, and they protect their own interests. Any bill on this issue will have to make it through both the House and Senate Judiciary committees, which are led by and filled with lawyers.

But public pressure is building as our state’s health care system gets older and smaller. New Mexico was the only state in the nation to see its pool of active health care workers decline in 2024. And, we also have the most elderly health care workforce in the nation, with 39 percent of our physicians age 60 or older. Too many New Mexico residents have to leave the state to get the medical care they need, and that will only get worse as more doctors retire.

The public policy group Think New Mexico has proposed a number of steps the state could take to address the shortage. And, there has been some progress. A bill was passed last year to create a permanent trust fund for Medicaid.

But other proposals have been met by resistance from both the Legislature and the governor, who vetoed a bill that would have ended the gross receipts tax on coinsurance for medical services. Doctors are not able to shift those costs on to consumers the same way that stores and most businesses can.

The Legislature rejected bills to bring New Mexico into existing interstate compacts for physicians and to reform what is one of the most lucrative medical malpractices systems in the nation for trial attorneys, with no limit on punitive damages in medical malpractice lawsuits.  

As a result, New Mexico has the second-highest rate of medical malpractice lawsuits in the nation. That’s not because our doctors are worse than those in 49 other states. It’s because our laws are stacked against them. 

All doctors pay the price. Even those with an impeccable record end up paying malpractice insurance rates that are twice as high as doctors in other states, and keep going up every year.

Defenders of the current laws argue that the real culprit here is a health care system that has been taken over by huge, national corporations that will always put profits first and must be held accountable when their cost-cutting schemes lead to horrific mistakes.

The group “Safety Over Profits” argues that the top priority for state legislators should be, “holding multi million and billion-dollar corporations accountable for the harm done to patients by medical malpractice.”

And, while it’s important to note that the group is funded almost entirely by attorneys, they’re not wrong. We’ve seen the destructive impact of corporate healthcare in our own community.

There are some good guys in this fight. They are the doctors who do their best every day to care for their patients. They aren’t perfect, and should be held accountable when they cause harm.

But our state’s laws are driving them away. And, our Legislature has thus far failed to change those laws because too many of our lawmakers have a personal interest in keeping them the same.


Walter Rubel can be reached at [email protected]

Listen to the audio version