By: Senator Larry Scott

This legislative session I agreed to carry the Republican caucus proposed legislation for comprehensive medical malpractice reform. SB 449 addressed a number of reasons why doctors are leaving the State including venue shopping and limits on punitive damages. By most estimates New Mexico is over 2000 doctors short and many complain of long waits to see a general practitioner and even longer wait if one needs a specialist. Because of the grip that the trial lawyers have on this legislature, there is no chance that 449 will pass this session. It may not even get a hearing.

SB176 is a watered down version of 449 and fixes at least some of the problems. It is sponsored by a Democrat and was assigned some time ago to our Senate ‘Health and Public Affairs’ committee. It has yet to be scheduled for a hearing. Instead, in a four hour Sunday afternoon session of SPHAC, we heard presented the ‘State Diversity Act’, ‘Massage Therapy Licensure’, ‘Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Changes’, and the ‘Corporate Practice of Medicine Act’, SB450.

Not one of these deserved a ‘Yes’ vote. My comment on the DEI bill was that it was very late to the party as both governments and private industry had tried this and were moving back in the direction of merit based hiring and promotion practices. Massage therapists already have to be licensed and this bill just added a requirement that the establishment have a license. I viewed this as another barrier to entry for this profession and did not believe that this licensure would do much to prevent human trafficking as was represented. Expanding the ‘Red Flag’ law was also on the agenda. This bill would now require the immediate surrender of all firearms with a protective order, which could now be requested by police. Nullifying a person’s 2nd Amendment rights with no due process, no notice, or opportunity to protest was not something I could support either.

New Mexico tort law has chased virtually all of the private practitioners either out of the State or into the arms of more deep pocketed hospitals or hospital districts. What SB450 attempted to accomplish was the elimination of any hospital oversight or records sharing between health care professionals. It basically tied the hands of hospital management with regards to all personnel decisions. This was another ‘NO’.

Now back to my complaint that SB176 has not been scheduled for a hearing. Committee chairpersons have enormous power in the Senate to just hold bills with which they do not agree. This is, in effect, a pocket veto of the legislation as it never has an opportunity to work its way through the system. Our committee chair has received over $10,000 in donations from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association and it would appear that this has influenced her decision not to hear SB176 in a timely manner. At this point in the session, with just a couple of weeks to go, even a slight delay can be a death sentence for any piece of legislation. A ‘one person’ pocket veto of does not allow any light to shine on the grip that trial lawyers have on our economy. New Mexico has now reached the number one position among the 50 states in the category of malpractice litigation as we recently set a new record with an award of over 400 million dollars. This is the system that has to change before doctors will return to our State. If we don’t, you will have to call a lawyer for your next medical emergency.

Larry Scott is a New Mexico State Senator

representing District 42.