The three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for governor say that they back the idea of having New Mexico join interstate medical compacts, an item that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-NM, hopes the Legislature will take up in the upcoming special session.
On Thursday, one of the Democratic hopefuls for governor, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, listed joining such compacts as one of the planks in his plan to enhance access to healthcare in New Mexico.
“Families in New Mexico deserve more than just excuses- they deserve solutions. When military families are forced to decline assignments in our state due to a lack of healthcare infrastructure, it’s a national security issue. When rural New Mexicans must choose between traveling hundreds of miles or going without care, that’s a moral failure of leadership,” he said.
Interstate medical compacts are agreements that streamline the process for medical professionals licensed in one state to work in another. Think New Mexico, a think tank that advocates for such agreements, says New Mexico is one of only two states that have joined two or fewer compacts. They are one of 40 states that are now a member of the Nurse Licensure Compact.
Legislation has been introduced in the past for New Mexico to join more compacts, but it failed to get out of both legislative chambers.
The compacts are meant to deal with the shortage of healthcare professionals in New Mexico. Bregman’s fellow Democratic contenders for governor also back the compacts as a solution.
“Medical compacts could help, especially in rural areas where we need it most. The agreements improve the quality of care by expanding Telehealth and bringing more doctors into our state. It benefits patients by reducing wait times for care throughout New Mexico and boosts providers, who are stretched thin,” Deb Haaland, former Secretary of the Interior, said in a statement provided to New Mexico Political Report.
The other Democrat, vying for the nomination, former Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima, also said the compacts are necessary.
“It’s an important piece, but it’s a small piece,” Miyagishima said in an interview with New Mexico Political Report. He also accused lawmakers, whom he said are trial lawyers, of preventing such legislation from getting approved in the past, and that it should be on the agenda for the special legislative session that begins Oct. 1.
Lujan Grisham has suggested legislation on the compacts as an item for lawmakers to take up in the special session. However, Michael Coleman, the communications director for the governor, said legislators were worried that there wouldn’t be time to take up the compacts and other matters during the special session. He added that the governor hopes legislators will reconsider and be willing to take it up.