I keep hearing about how the Legislature “fixed” the medical malpractice law that’s sent doctors running like they’re in a theater fire. As my own doctor just told me about this year’s reform, “It was a start. They stopped the bleeding, but they haven’t stitched up the patient.”
House Bill 99 attempted to reform a medical malpractice law that has spiked doctors’ insurance premiums and multiplied malpractice lawsuits. It almost failed this year. Now some of its critics are running for office, and they’re less than honest about their actions.
Voters have a lot to think about in this election, but access to doctors should be a priority. It’s why medical malpractice reform was the most urgent issue among a slew of healthcare bills heard this year. That’s what I hear from doctors.
So, I’ve created the Hall of Fame and the Hall of Shame – only for House members because senators aren’t up for re-election.
In the Hall of Fame are state representatives who stood up for your doctor and your access to healthcare. We start with Reps. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, and Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena, the primary sponsors of HB 99, along with Dem co-sponsors Dayan Hochman-Vigil, Sarah Silva and Doreen Gallegos. (In total, 49 legislators signed on, too many to list here.)
Add to this Joseph Sanchez, D-Alcalde, as a primary House sponsor of SB 176, the 2025 predecessor to HB 99.
Some lawmakers have stepped up repeatedly as champions of effective healthcare legislation: Armstrong, Silva, Gallegos and Sanchez, along with Republicans Nicole Chavez and Joshua Hernandez and Democrats Anita Gonzales and Charlotte Little. Democrat Marian Matthews championed both malpractice reform and professional licensing compacts, which allow licensed healthcare providers in other states to serve patients in New Mexico.
Republican Jenifer Jones, a nurse, co-sponsored ten compact and other health-related bills. Jones and fellow Republicans Alan Martinez and Nicole Chavez defended HB 99 under fire.
The first five members of the Hall of Shame are Democrats on the House Health and Human Services Committee, who voted in January to gut HB 99.
Chair Liz Thomson, who was openly hostile to doctors testifying before her committee, moved an amendment denying a cap to corporate-owned hospital systems, so HB 99 would have protected just five of the state’s 38 hospitals. She and the committee’s Democrats ranted about “huge multi-billion-dollar corporations.”
Republicans on the committee pointed out that corporations provide a great deal of care here and said the amendment exploded a delicate nonpartisan deal. The amendment and the gutted bill passed. Fortunately, Chandler restored the bill in her own House Judiciary Committee, it passed both chambers and the governor signed it into law.
Of the five Dems running for office, two can’t be held accountable because they’re running unopposed: Thomson and Rep. Marianna Anaya. (Rep. Joanne Ferrary resigned from the House.)
Anaya, who was paid $10,000 by a trial-lawyer front group in 2024, recently joined the House Democratic leadership board. In 2025 she sponsored a pointless bill to promote medical recruiting, as if doctors outside the state wouldn’t know that New Mexico’s malpractice premiums were sky high.
The other three – Reps. Pamelya Herndon, Kathleen Cates and Eleanor Chavez – have opposition. All three voted for HB 99 on the House floor.
Herndon, with an eye on the election, even signed on to HB 99; her website says only that she voted for HB 99.
Kathleen Cates wrote in September on her Facebook page: “I supported medical malpractice reform but knew the (New Mexico) Hospital Association and other organizations were lying about doctors leaving New Mexico. They are not leaving. There are many reasons why we have a shortage.”
She got blowback from several groups, including the Doña Ana County Medical Society, for citing bad data, misleading her constituents and “taking trial-lawyer money while promising to fix that crisis.”
Eleanor Chavez said in the committee hearing that she didn’t believe passing HB 99 would increase the number of doctors in the state. Her campaign website says nothing about malpractice reform.
The facts: New Mexico lost 248 physicians from 2019 through 2024, an 8.1% decline, as Texas and Arizona increased their numbers by more than 14%. A legislative survey in January reported that 65% of New Mexico physicians were considering leaving the state to practice elsewhere. Of those, 83% reported the cause as punitive damages associated with medical malpractice.
Three more members of the Hall of Shame are the House Democrats who voted against HB 99 in a 66-3 vote: Janelle Anyanonu, Patricia Roybal Caballero and Angelica Rubio. All three are running unopposed.
Maybe you think it’s tedious to get into the weeds of legislative committee votes, but year after year we ask ourselves how we get into these messes. The answers lie in the weeds.
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.
