By Sherry Robinson
All She Wrote

Five progressives killed the medical malpractice bill.

You might say the trial lawyers got their money’s worth. You might say it’s late in the session and everybody’s getting tired and cranky. You could even observe that the strife of national politics has haunted this legislative session. It would all be true.

But there’s another element that’s more troubling, and that’s denial and willful ignorance.

New Mexico doesn’t have enough doctors. It’s a national problem, but it’s worse here. In recent years New Mexico was the ONLY state to lose doctors.

In testimony last week on Senate Bill 176, doctors were crystal clear: Changes in New Mexico’s malpractice law since 2021 legislation multiplied malpractice lawsuits and spiked court awards and settlement costs. New Mexico is first in the nation for medical malpractice lawsuits per capita. Insurance premiums have quadrupled, but insurers are still losing money. Doctors are leaving the state. Unable to recruit new doctors, organizations are no longer accepting new patients or referrals. Doctors who stay are stretched thin.

“We are exhausted and demoralized,” testified Dr. Gabrielle Adams, of Southwest Gastroenterology. “We have a target on our backs.”

Dr. Angelina Villas-Adams, president of the New Mexico Medical Society, said, “It’s harder and harder to practice medicine.” She herself has 60 people on a waiting list, and she’s tried unsuccessfully to get them seen by other doctors.

SB 176 would cap attorney fees in medical malpractice lawsuits at 25% of the money awarded if a case is settled or 33% if a case goes to trial. It would end lump sum payouts and send 75% of punitive damages to a new public fund designed to improve patient safety. Punitive damages would be awarded only for egregious cases.

Sen. Martin Hickey, the Legislature’s only doctor, called the bill a “patient advocacy bill.”

“It’s about rebalancing to bring medical professionals back to New Mexico and for patients to be able to get physicians,” he said.

The New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association has responded with smoke and mirrors: greedy corporate-owned hospitals, greedy insurance companies, imagined limits on patients’ right to sue, and hospital horror stories. In the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee, they succeeded.

Sens. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Cindy Nava, Albuquerque Democrats, didn’t like taking 75% of a punitive damages award from patients and putting it into a fund. Punitive damages hold the medical profession accountable, Sedillo Lopez said.

“The medical field is not a profession, it’s a business,” she said. “Patients are not people with needs but consumers at profit centers.”

Hickey explained that many frivolous cases get filed, and they come with a threat of punitive damages if they don’t settle. There’s no insurance for punitive damages – it falls directly on the doctor.

Sedillo Lopez resents anti-lawyer sentiment she’d heard. “I’m proud to be a lawyer,” she said. “Lawyers and courts are going to save us.” It was a pointed reference to the many lawsuits prompted by the President and First Sidekick.

National politics also entered an exchange between Nava and Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview and the bill’s co-sponsor. Nava wanted answers about healthcare access for people of color, even though that wasn’t the issue in this bill. Woods responded, “We have to think about New Mexico as a state of people, not a state of colors.”

That led to an angry rant from Nava about equity that would be better directed at Republicans who plan to gut Medicaid. Nava wants the state to incentivize doctors to return, apparently missing the entire point about why they’re leaving.

Sen. Shannon Pinto, D-Tohatchi, speculated that maybe doctors can’t afford their technology and their facilities. No doctor said that at any time in two hearings or months of media coverage.

Sen. Angel Charlie, D-Acoma, insisted that with the billions insurance companies are raking in, they should pay their fair share. Hickey explained to her, again, that for every $1 insurers receive here they pay out $1.83. They’re losing money, he said, again. Hickey was talking to himself. Charlie concluded, “Insurers are winning at all our expense.”

Committee Democrats believe what they want to believe, despite evidence. It’s a trait they share with congressional Republicans who claim that trade wars are good, Russia’s bloody dictator is our friend and we don’t need allies.

SB 176 died on a 5-4 vote. Political donations to the five cost the trial lawyers less than $300,000.

Sherry Robinson is a longtime New Mexico reporter and editor. She has worked in Grants, Gallup, the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Business Weekly and Albuquerque Tribune. She is the author of four books. Her columns won first place in 2024 from New Mexico Press Women.