A dark money group, New Mexico Safety over Profits (NMSOP), with deep ties to the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, attacked Think New Mexico in a recent opinion piece in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

That opinion piece is filled with some wild, over the top conspiracy theories (you can read it here, with our annotations and corrections). We wanted to share our response, which was published yesterday in the Santa Fe New Mexican, and also give you a bit of context.

Why the attack? In short, it is because Think New Mexico's campaign to reform New Mexico's malpractice laws continues to gain momentum, and because the New Mexico Ethics Commission filed a 73-page complaint against NMSOP last month for allegedly violating New Mexico's lobbyist disclosure laws. The trial lawyers and NMSOP are desperate to stop our momentum and deflect attention away from the embarrassing ethics complaint against them.  

This all began last fall, when Think New Mexico published a policy report on how to address the healthcare worker shortage. One of the reforms we are recommending is an overhaul of New Mexico's medical malpractice laws to better protect patients and bring down the extremely high malpractice insurance premiums that are burdening doctors. Our research found that the state's malpractice environment is one of the major reasons why New Mexico was the only state to lose practicing physicians between 2019 and 2024, when the number of doctors rose nationwide by about 44,000.

Our report identified six major problems with New Mexico's malpractice statute, which is unbalanced in ways that harm patients and health care workers. For example, unlike many progressive states like California, New York, and Massachusetts, New Mexico has no cap on attorney's fees. Likewise, New Mexico has no limit on punitive damages, as well as the lowest legal standard for proving punitive damages in the country. This lopsided statute is great for trial lawyers, but not so great for folks trying to find a doctor.

In January, we introduced our medical malpractice reform bill and gained the support of a growing number of legislators from both parties, as well as the governor. The trial lawyers realized that it would appear very self-serving for them to oppose these reforms directly, so conveniently NMSOP appeared on the scene to do the dirty work for them.

NMSOP put out a report filled with inaccuracies (as documented by the independent investigative news outlet Searchlight New Mexico) attempting to rebut Think New Mexico's report, and refused to say who had written it - or who was paying for their expensive advertising campaign. That is where the New Mexico Ethics Commission came in with its lawsuit to enforce state disclosure laws, and why NMSOP and the trial lawyers are so desperate to accuse Think New Mexico of the sort of subterfuge they seem to be engaging in.

We hope you'll share this background and our response with anyone you know who may have been misled by NMSOP's attack.

Fred, Kristina, Susan, Mandi, Katie, and Lauren

Think New Mexico