By KRISTINA FISHER, Associate Director THINK New Mexico

The most immediate way New Mexico lawmakers can expand access to health care is by joining all interstate compacts for health care workers. These agreements make it easier for health care professionals licensed in other states to care for patients in New Mexico, including through telehealth.

States that join the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact experience an increase of 10% to 15% each year in the number of licensed physicians. No state that has joined a health care worker compact has ever withdrawn.

Currently, 42 states participate in the doctor compact, 41 in the psychology compact, and 39 in the physical therapist compact. New Mexico, by contrast, is one of only four states that participate in just one or no health care worker compacts. The state is a member of the nursing compact.

During the 2025 legislative session, the New Mexico House unanimously passed legislation to join seven health care worker compacts, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham expressed her support. The legislation stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where several senators opposed the measures.

In response to growing public pressure, the Senate majority leader has pledged to consider compacts for doctors and social workers during the 2026 session. However, that would leave out eight other compacts, despite workforce shortages across those professions.

To meet national benchmarks, New Mexico needs an estimated 2,510 additional emergency medical technicians, 526 physical therapists, 281 physician assistants and 114 occupational therapists, among other health care professionals. The state’s behavioral health system has been in crisis for more than a decade, with severe shortages of psychologists and counselors.

Opponents of the compacts have raised three main objections.

First, some senators have objected to provisions that protect interstate compact commissions from lawsuits for official acts. These commissions are composed of members of participating states’ licensing boards. New Mexico’s medical board already receives identical legal protections under state law.

Notably, the same provisions appear in the nursing compact, which New Mexico has participated in since 2003. Opponents have not identified any problems resulting from the state’s participation in that compact over the past two decades.

Second, opponents have asserted that joining the compacts could jeopardize New Mexico’s legal protections for health care providers who offer reproductive and gender-affirming care. However, the compacts explicitly state that they do not alter a state’s authority to regulate medical practice within its borders and include strict limitations on information sharing between states.

States such as Colorado and Illinois, which have laws similar to New Mexico’s protecting reproductive and gender-affirming care, participate in multiple health care worker compacts without reported issues.

Finally, opponents have argued there is insufficient time to prepare the compacts for the 2026 legislative session. Because compacts are agreements among states, participants must adopt identical substantive terms. States may make only minor, technical changes that do not alter those terms.

Legislators have had years to work with compact commission staff on drafting acceptable language. The emergency medical technician compact was first introduced in New Mexico in 2017, and the doctor compact has been introduced repeatedly since 2019. Other compacts have been introduced multiple times over the past five years.

Lawmakers should move forward in 2026 by approving all 10 health care worker compacts to expand access to care for New Mexicans without further delay.