Ifind the word “crisis” to be overused these days when discussing public policy. Advocates often declare a situation to be a “crisis” based only on their opinions. However, on the topic of New Mexicans’ access to medical care, the following facts suggest that this is indeed a “crisis” facing our state.

Most estimates indicate that the state is lacking some 300 primary care physicians to meet the accepted (no shortage) ratio of 1 physician per 1500 people. This has resulted in wait times to see a primary care provider (PCP) increasing from 2-5 weeks in 2016 to now 2-4 MONTHS in some areas of the state. The reality of our problem gets much worse when specialty physicians are included in the dataset as one estimate had over 2,200 positions available in the 2024 job market.

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