NOTE: since this column was written, a replacement for the hospital oversight bill was introduced and passed.<\/p>\n
In New Mexico, there aren\u2019t enough doctors. There aren\u2019t enough nurses. There aren\u2019t enough hospitals, especially in small towns. There aren\u2019t enough patients paying full price for their healthcare and too many on Medicaid.<\/p>\n
You probably already know this. We talk about it all the time.<\/p>\n
Two other factors contribute to this crisis. One is the presence of private for-profit ownership of hospitals and the other is our high rate of malpractice insurance.<\/p>\n
But one of these two issues is claiming to be the solution to the other one, and that is pure nonsense.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s set this straight. The people who represent trial lawyers claim that high malpractice insurance premiums will scare doctors and hospitals into improved safety. No, it won\u2019t. It will scare doctors into leaving New Mexico, which is already happening. It will make the health care crisis in our state worse, and threaten your personal health and safety.<\/p>\n
A certain amount of malpractice insurance is reasonable and appropriate. When a patient has suffered from a medical error, the patient should receive financial compensation and enough money to pay for the medical correction of the error, for the rest of the patient\u2019s life if necessary. And compensation for pain and suffering.<\/p>\n
But millions of dollars in punitive damages do not make medical facilities safer. Simple logic tells us that high costs potentially make them less safe because they have less money to spend on whatever is necessary to correct the situation that caused the error.<\/p>\n
The new group that speaks for trial lawyers claims to be the champion for protecting us New Mexicans from those evil private equity companies. The group is called New Mexico Safety over Profits (NMSOP), which appeared out of nowhere a few months ago with full page newspaper ads. It claimed to represent families that had suffered injuries from bad hospitals. But in the initial ads there were no names.<\/p>\n
The NMSOP website has a downloadable 28-page publication explaining its argument against for-profit hospitals, making recommendations about how to recruit physicians, and defending the trial lawyers\u2019 malpractice position.<\/p>\n
But, in criticizing for-profit hospitals, it does not offer a solution that would assure those hospitals can stay open.<\/p>\n
New Mexico is attempting to establish oversight of hospital acquisitions. I wrote about it last year (see www.triplespacedagain.com<\/a>, September 2024). Legislation to set up that oversight (Senate Bill 14 committee substitute) is stuck in a Senate committee and not likely to be enacted this year. Troy Clark, president of the New Mexico Hospital Association, says the hospitals are not opposed to oversight but the bill goes too far in micromanaging hospital administration.<\/p>\n Hospitals need to serve their patients and not be the victims of corporate raiders. Oversight is one way to address that issue. If this bill doesn\u2019t pass, lawmakers will need address the issue again.<\/p>\n But our egregious malpractice law does nothing to help New Mexicans who hope to be able to rely on a functioning health care system. It won\u2019t be fixed in this almost-over legislative session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NOTE: since this column was written, a replacement for the hospital oversight bill was introduced and passed. In New Mexico, there aren\u2019t enough doctors. There aren\u2019t enough nurses. There aren\u2019t enough hospitals, especially in small towns. There aren\u2019t enough patients … Continue reading