As lawmakers prepare for the start of a jam-packed 30-day legislative session Tuesday, House Majority Leader Reena Szczepanski said she’s starting to feel the enthusiasm.
“The vibes are high-energy,” she said. “I’m feeling excited.”
While the session will be focused primarily on drafting a budget for fiscal year 2027, lawmakers are nonetheless expected to take up a series of health care proposals, many aimed at ameliorating New Mexico’s physician shortage.
Measures likely to be considered would expand programs to train and retain doctors, and reignite debates on interstate health care licensing compacts and medical malpractice reform — neither of which made it across the finish line in 2025.
Health care reforms will be a major point of focus for House Democrats, said Szczepanski, a Santa Fe Democrat.
“We are really dialed in on health care — expanding access, affordability, supporting health care providers,” she said. “That’s going to be a big agenda item for us this session.”
The issue tops House Republicans’ list of priorities, too, said House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong.
A fight is once again brewing over medical malpractice policies — in particular the payout caps in civil claims alleging patients were injured due to negligence.
Medical malpractice lawsuits provide injured patients and their loved ones with a civil remedy for their pain — largely settlement dollars or jury awards.
But reforming how medical malpractice lawsuits work in New Mexico has grown into a political flashpoint. Doctors say they’re retiring or leaving the state over the threat of lawsuits and the high cost of medical malpractice insurance premiums, decreasing the availability of care for everyone. Meanwhile, injured patients and attorneys argue they should be able to seek justice — in the form of financial compensation — after an injury.
Overhauling medical malpractice policies in New Mexico was among the health care reforms proposed during the 2025 legislative session. Senate Bill 176 — a bill that proposed limits on attorneys’ fees, a new reimbursement system for patients’ medical expenses and changes to punitive damages — was backed by nonpartisan think tank Think New Mexico and co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 24 lawmakers.
But the bill floundered; it’s first hearing didn’t come until six weeks after its introduction.
The issue will rise again this year. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will ask lawmakers to take up the matter during the 2026 session, spokesperson Michael Coleman confirmed in an email to The New Mexican. If necessary, the governor will consider calling a special session over medical malpractice reform.
The governor is planning to push for specific legislation, though her office is “not ready to release details” on that just yet, Coleman added.
Lawmakers have filed some measures aimed at reforming the system. Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, has filed House Bill 99 to limit the dollar amount injured patients could receive in punitive damages for a claim. The legislation also calls for plaintiffs’ medical costs to be covered as they are incurred, rather than in a lump sum.
House Bill 107 — sponsored by Rep. Jenifer Jones, a Deming Republican and registered nurse — proposes similar reforms and would cap attorneys’ fees in medical malpractice cases.
Both bills would increase the legal standard of proof to award punitive damages.
“With doctors leaving the state and families struggling to access care, inaction is not an option,” Jones said in a statement. “This bill is about keeping providers here, keeping hospitals open, and making sure patients get the care they need when they need it.”
The New Mexico Medical Society is in favor of placing a cap on punitive damages — which are currently uncapped and not covered by medical malpractice insurance — and increasing the legal standard of proof to demonstrate malpractice occurred, the society’s president, Dr. Robert Underwood, said in an interview.
“Those are the kinds of things that we think would make a difference in terms of turning the tide for medical malpractice issues in the state of New Mexico,” Underwood said.
Cid Lopez, an attorney who specializes in medical malpractice cases and a member of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, argued proposed reforms — including capping punitive damages — would take away patients’ access to justice.
“You’re not … going to reduce the injury or harm to people. They’ll still be harmed; they just won’t have access to justice,” Lopez said.
He asserted other policy changes — like expanded student loan repayment programs — could better retain doctors in the state.
“New Mexico does have a doctor shortage, especially in rural areas. We acknowledge that. … We need to find ways to bring doctors here that help them with student loan debt, that help them with loans to start their practices,” Lopez said.
Sen. Martin Hickey, an Albuquerque Democrat, physician and longtime health care administrator who sponsored SB 176 in 2025, said both doctors and trial lawyers are “acting rationally” in advocating for their interests.
“Who’s on the spot here are we, as legislators, because we make the laws,” Hickey said.
Health care compacts
While medical malpractice reform remains far from a sure thing, lawmakers are expected to enter an interstate medical professional licensing compact, an agreement between states that eases the process for out-of-state doctors to practice in New Mexico.
New Mexico already has joined an interstate nursing compact, but several other licensing compacts — covering health care workers ranging from physicians to emergency medical personnel to physical therapists — didn’t make it over the finish line during the regular legislative session in 2025.
Seven such compact proposals made it through one chamber of the Legislature last year but never advanced from the other chamber’s judiciary committee. Two never made it to floor sessions.
This year, at least two interstate compacts — including the compact covering doctors — are expected to make it to the governor’s desk.
For Sen. Linda Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, it feels like “the opportunity of a lifetime”: She’s the lead sponsor on the very first bill filed in the New Mexico Senate ahead of this year’s legislative session.
That bill would allow New Mexico to enter the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact, a change Trujillo said could make it easier for out-of-state specialists to consult on cases in New Mexico and bring new doctors.
“I think there’s going to be physicians that are potentially licensed in Texas, Colorado and Arizona that will apply for and become authorized to practice in New Mexico. That will help those communities,” said Trujillo, who formerly served as superintendent of the state Regulation and Licensing Department.
The bill has earned the approval of more than a dozen co-sponsors from both chambers of the Legislature and both major political parties.
But getting to that point required a few months of negotiations between a group of lawmakers and compact commission officials, Trujillo said.
A bill to join the medical compact faltered in 2025 after heavy revisions by the Senate Judiciary Committee — changes so substantial they would have prohibited New Mexico from joining the compact entirely, according to a letter written by an attorney for the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission.
Lawmakers and compact officials have reached a workable agreement. Marschall Smith, executive director of the commission, confirmed in an email to The New Mexican his organization worked with lawmakers throughout November and December to draft a bill.
“The proposed bill, if passed and signed by the governor, will allow New Mexico to become the 45th member jurisdiction with full participation privileges,” Smith wrote.
Even the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association — which objected to legal immunity clauses in last year’s bill — is on board with the latest version, association lobbyist Julianna Koob said in an interview.
“We’re really pleased to be able to support the compacts now,” Koob said.
Lawmakers have filed bills that call for the state to join six other interstate compacts, covering emergency medical services personnel, counselors, psychologists, physician assistants, social workers, dentists and dental hygienists — but the likelihood of passage for those compacts is less certain.
Another incentive to pass multiple interstate compacts has emerged since the 2025 legislative session: It improves the state’s chances of securing further funding under the federal Rural Health Transformation Program. New Mexico has submitted an application to receive $1 billion from the fund over the next five years and has been awarded the first round of that money — $211.5 million.
Trujillo said she also plans to push for the state to join an interstate compact for social workers this year, in hopes of bolstering the workforce for social worker jobs in New Mexico schools and the long-troubled Children, Youth and Families Department.
Trujillo also plans to have five more compacts ready to pass during the 60-day session in 2027.
The additional time, she said, will be essential to ensuring the compacts can be put in practice effectively and efficiently, particularly given the upcoming change in governor.
“As someone who’s worked in government for my career, it’s one thing to pass a law. It’s another thing to have the tools to implement it,” Trujillo said.
Training, retaining doctors
Amid a nation- and statewide shortage of health care providers, lawmakers are looking for ways to expand the number of doctors in training — and keep them in New Mexico after they finish years of medical education.
The Legislature is set to consider a massive budget item to construct a new school of medicine at the University of New Mexico’s campus in Albuquerque.
Dr. Mike Richards, executive vice president of the UNM Health Sciences Center and CEO of the UNM Health System, went before the Legislative Finance Committee in December to request $600 million to replace the medical school’s primary building, Reginald Heber Fitz Hall, constructed in 1967.
The infrastructure improvement would enable UNM to double its medical school enrollment — expanding class sizes from about 100 to 200 — while opening up more space to train physical therapists, occupational therapists, physician assistants and other health professionals.
The Legislative Finance Committee’s initial spending plan includes $545 million for the new medical school building, which members of the committee described as a “lynchpin in an ambitious effort” to double the number of doctors in training at UNM and improve the state’s supply of physicians.
Lawmakers are also looking at ways to entice medical professionals to stay in New Mexico after completing their training — largely through the state’s student loan repayment program.
On average, doctors graduate from medical school with more than $200,000 in education debt, according to data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Nearly three in 10 new doctors owe more than $300,000 in student loans.
To pay off that debt, 65% of new doctors plan to enter some kind of student loan forgiveness or repayment program, data from the association shows.
New Mexico’s existing Health Professional Loan Repayment Program, administered by the state Higher Education Department, offered up to $25,000 per year in student loan forgiveness for medical professionals who applied in 2025 and committed to working in underserved communities in the state for at least three years.
The program is open to more than two dozen health occupations, including doctors, nurses, dentists and behavioral health professionals.
Lawmakers are pushing to increase funding for that program — and pay off more student loans for health care workers who commit to staying in New Mexico.
House Bill 66, also sponsored by Chandler, would allow doctors to receive up to $75,000 per year over four years of service in New Mexico — or a total of up to $300,000 in forgiveness. Other health care providers would be eligible for loan repayment adjusted for the amount of post-secondary training required for their job.
Chandler’s bill would also provide $25 million for the Health Professional Loan Repayment Program for fiscal year 2027.
“I think it will get bipartisan support from both chambers,” Chandler said of the bill, calling it a “key strategy to bringing doctors into the state and hopefully keeping them.”
Think New Mexico is advocating for similar changes, proposing a maximum repayment of up to $60,000 per year for up to five years of service.
Hickey, too, said he’s working on a student loan repayment bill for physicians, in alignment with Chandler’s goal of $75,000 per year for four years.
“We so desperately need doctors anywhere,” he said.