New Mexico
Legislative Updates

Did you know we have a Governmental Affairs Committee? 

Each year we ask our members to participate in a legislative priorities survey to help us focus on what is important to you. Our 2025 priorities are: 

• Recruit and retain physicians, including support primary care residencies 
• Medical malpractice reform
• Pharmaceutical costs containment
• Costs in the business of medicine: eliminate GRT on medical services, Medicaid payment increases

You can view detailed information on the many bills we followed in Santa Fe by viewing the following links:

• February 1 Update
• February 8 Update
• February 15 Update
• February 22 Update
• March 1 Update
• March 8 Update
• March 17 Update
• March 25 Update

Get Involved
We would love for you to get involved!

Attend a public board meeting or committee meeting. Our next Governmental Affairs Committee meeting is at 10:00am on Saturday, May 3, 2025 followed by our board meeting at 12:00pm . Contact Sam at familydoctor@newmexico.com or (505) 292-3113 to RSVP. 

Other opportunities include our annual Doctor of the Day volunteer program that takes place each legislative session. The Doctor of the Day Program is the NMAFP community service to the New Mexico State Legislature. Volunteers work in cooperation with the New Mexico Medical Society and serve a day (or more). DOD volunteers provide medical evaluation and care, and the NMMS provides pharmaceutical support when indicated. During the day volunteers, including Residents and Students shadowing volunteers, can observe the legislative sessions, provide testimony on behalf of the New Mexico Academy (only on issues of direct relevance to the Academy) and generally learn about the legislative process.  Click here for more information about this program. 

National Activity
Ways to get involved and stay informed:

• AAFP Advocacy Ambassador Program which will keep you in the loop and call on you to engage your locally elected Congress member on behalf of AAFP.
• AAFP’s Voices blog: https://www.aafp.org/news/blogs/aafp-voices.html includes frequent federal advocacy updates from David Tully. 
• AAFP Speak Out campaign to ask Congress members to support Medicaid 
•  Family Medicine Advocacy Summit for advocacy training and in person Congressional advocacy

 

AAFP Action on Medicaid: AAFP has a skilled and experienced advocacy team whose most successful work is often behind the scenes. It can be challenging when they are working with an office on behalf of family physicians and the office is receiving different information from FPs.

• Link to AAFP Group of Six statement: https://www.aafp.org/news/blogs/aafp-voices.html
• Heavily engaged with the Partnership for Medicaid
• Deployed physician Advocacy Ambassadors by providing them with direct contact information for their elected lawmakers health staffers and equipped them with talking points
• Placed op-eds with publications in states of senators AAFP is targeting (Maine, Missouri, Alaska)
• Dr. Sarah Nosal, AAFP President-Elect, testified last month  to the Senate Aging Committee on the importance of Medicaid
• All AFP chapters signed a joint letter to Congressional leaders opposing Medicaid cuts

Additional Resources
The NMMS website: www.nmms.org has briefing papers of priority issues physicians are following at the session. Please sign up for “Your Voice for Medicine” which gives weekly updates on legislation, calls for action and key hearing schedules.

The New Mexico Legislature website has a wealth of information.  To find your legislator, go to www.nmlegis.gov. From the top menu click on Legislators. A drop-down menu will appear. Click on “Find my Legislator.” On the “Find Your Legislator” page, select “Search by Name, District, or Zip Code” for either House of Representatives or Senate. Enter your Zip Code. If you know your district number, you can enter that as well. The results will show a list of possible representatives and senators that represent your Zip Code. If there are multiple representatives listed for your specific Zip Code, then you will have to call your county clerk to complete your search.

To find or track a bill: Go to www.nmlegis.gov. From the top menu click on Legislation. A drop-down menu will appear offering various options to search for legislation. Choose the desired option to begin your search. Select “Number” if you know the bill number. In the Session drop-down menu select “2025 Regular”. Select either House or Senate in the Chamber drop-down menu. In the Type drop-down menu select the bill “Type”; bill, memorial, etc. Enter the bill number and select “search.” If you do not know the bill number, you can conduct a search using the “Key Words” option; for example, using the word “health.” For help with bill terms and abbreviations, go to Quick Links from the top menu and select the desired link from the drop-down menu.