Do you want there to be EMTs to answer the call when you dial 911 in a medical emergency? How about a nurse to perform triage when you arrive at the ER? Do you expect a doctor or physician assistant to treat you during your emergency episode? In New Mexico, this basic level of care is harder and harder for our hospitals to accomplish, especially outside of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces.
Perhaps legislators themselves are tired of not being able to get an appointment with a specialist for months on end. Whatever the reason, a bipartisan group of legislators has sponsored legislation in bother chambers of the Roundhouse to not just do a right thing, but a smart thing: enter as many interstate healthcare compacts as possible.
Currently there are bipartisan bills moving through the Legislature sponsored by an assortment of ten legislators to enter New Mexico into the nine interstate compacts to which it does not yet belong. The interstate compacts allow healthcare providers already licensed in one state to bring that license to another state belonging to the same compact to practice in that state without applying for new licensure.
Until now, New Mexico has only participated in one such compact, the Nurse Licensure Compact. According to the latest figure from a 2018 article from the Albuquerque Journal, 80% of New Mexico’s nurses would not be able to practice here without our participation in that compact. One might imagine that seven years later in 2025, that number is much higher.
According to Fred Nathan, the executive director of Think New Mexico, the Santa Fe think tank that published an extensive report on the state of health care in our state in 2024, “Joining the interstate compacts would immediately expand the supply of health care providers available to care for New Mexicans.”
(The full report, including its recommendations on interstate compacts, is available at thinknm.org. My Cliff’s Notes summary of the report is available here.)
Nine Democrats and three Republicans are sponsoring the legislation. The Democrats are all from Albuquerque or Santa Fe; the Republicans are all from rural areas. The healthcare compacts proposed would cover doctors; psychologists; counselors; audiologists and speech therapists; physical therapists; occupational therapists; physician assistants; emergency medical personnel; and dentists and dental hygienists.
The sponsoring legislators are: Senators Natalie Figeroa (D-Bernalillo), Antonio Maestas (D-Bernalillo), Antoinette Sedillo Lopez (D-Bernalillo) and Linda Trujillo (D-Santa Fe); Representatives Gail Armstrong (R-Catron, Sierra, Socorro and Valencia), Rebecca Dow (R-Doña Ana, Sierra and Socorro), Pamelya Herndon (D-Bernalillo), Jenifer Jones (R-Doña Ana, Hidalgo and Luna), Marian Matthews (D-Bernalillo), and Liz Thomson (D-Bernalillo).
Representatives Jones and Thompson are health care providers themselves; Jones a nurse and Thomson a physical therapist.
Past efforts to join interstate compacts failed as recently as 2023. They all died in the House Judiciary Committee, where the chair, Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos, Sandoval and Santa Fe), killed all four House bills and the two Senate bills (that passed the Senate) by denying them a hearing in her committee.
Opponents of the bill claim interstate compacts harm state sovereignty by allowing other states to determine who gets to practice medicine. Other opponents include the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association according to a Think New Mexico press release, whose primary motivation is generally maximizing the capacity for attorneys’ fees in all matters.
I am going to quote my October column on the topic: “Phooey.” I hope you will excuse the self-reference.
The ten House bills, HB 79, HB 81, HB 82, HB 217, HB 242, HB 243, HB 412, HB 413, and HB 441, must all be heard in House Judiciary. The three Senate bills, SB 46, SB 104, and SB 106, if they pass the House, will likely go to House Judiciary before a House vote. Rep. Chandler remains the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
If there were one action you took this year as a New Mexican on behalf of yourself and your state, I would suggest it be this: call your legislators, both House and Senate to voice your support of all interstate healthcare compact legislation. Ask them to personally support it, and to personally urge Rep. Chandler to give all interstate compact bills a fair hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. You can find your legislators’ office contact information at www.nmlegis.gov/Members/Find_My_Legislator.
Making that call or sending that email could make the difference when your family needs it the most.
Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican for 36 years, she became an independent upon reading the 2024 Republican platform. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and one of cat. She can be reached at
