About a year after Christine Calhoun and her family moved to Cannon Air Force Base, her 5-year-old son woke up from a nap and didn't remember her.
"It was horrifying," Calhoun said.
In Clovis, the closest city to Cannon, there are no pediatric neurologists. That night, Calhoun and her husband, a senior master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, drove two hours to Amarillo, Texas, and slept in shifts at a hotel, making sure their son stayed awake all night for his electroencephalogram the next morning. After he was examined at a hospital, the Calhouns returned to New Mexico from what would be the first of many trips to Texas over the next few years.
"We went to the hospital here (in Clovis) and they literally were like, there is not much we can do," Calhoun said.
Calhoun's son, now 9, was diagnosed with migraines with aura, a type of headache that can cause sensory or cognitive disturbances like blind spots, numbness or amnesia. His mother regularly takes a day off from her job as a middle school special education teacher to make the four-hour round trip to Texas so her son can see his doctor or get a medication refill. Because of a state law, he can't see his doctor via telehealth.
When their older son experienced similar debilitating migraines when the Calhouns lived outside of Boston, they made the short drive to Massachusetts General Hospital, where "everything was taken care of," she said. The Calhouns have lived in Massachusetts, North Carolina and Washington, and say they have not had issues with medical care at any other Air Force base.
"My husband retires soon, and we would like to make Clovis our home," Calhoun said. "We enjoy the community. We've had very good luck in the schools, and we have kind of been able to make this area our own. Our only concern, honestly, is the lack of medical care for special needs."
The shortage of health care providers in New Mexico means the people who live here face long waits to see a doctor. In rural areas of the state, where access is even more scarce, residents often face two options: travel to a neighboring state for care like the Calhouns, or go without it.
At New Mexico's three Air Force bases — Kirtland in Albuquerque, Cannon near Clovis and Holloman outside of Alamogordo — the lack of specialty medical care is a major deterrent to service members who are assigned there, U.S. Air Force officials said.
One in five airmen assigned to a base in New Mexico must turn down the post because the medical care is not sufficient for a member of their family, according to Col. Steven M. Fox, commander of the 377th Medical Group at Kirtland. The rate of medical rejections in New Mexico is about double the Air Force average, Fox said.
"(It's affecting) the ability of the state as a whole to recruit, not just military," said Megan DeLaRosa, executive director of the Kirtland Partnership Committee, a nonprofit affiliated with the base. "We spend so much on economic development, and we don't have the health care system to support it."
A 2024 report from nonprofit policy group Think New Mexico reveals the state's profound provider deficit: New Mexico is short 30% for nurses, almost 19% for primary care doctors, 25% for OB-GYNs, 35% for psychiatrists and 73% for EMTs.
The reasons for the shortage are varied, advocates say. Among them: high gross receipts taxes on medical services, plaintiff-friendly medical malpractice laws, limited capability for doctors in other states to practice via telehealth, and a population significantly reliant on Medicaid and Medicare and its low reimbursement rates.
In August, Kirtland announced a record-breaking $7.5 billion economic impact at a reception in Albuquerque, though in his speech, Base Commander Col. Justin Secrest revealed the Air Force had spent over $1 million in recent years sending airmen or their families out of New Mexico to receive medical care.
"This actually shocked me," Secrest said.
Sometimes a needed specialist does have a practice near a base, but the wait to see the doctor is so long that it doesn't meet military health care requirements, Fox said.
"If you're going to be here for a two-year assignment, but it's going to take 18 months before you can get in — maybe they have it, but there's also a mandated access-to-care standard," Fox said. "We wouldn't want to unduly delay someone's care by bringing them here."
Cannon, Kirtland and Holloman rank among the top 17 Air Force bases for medical rejection, Fox said. The rest of the list, he added, is made up mostly of remote locations in less-populous states like North Dakota and Montana.
" Kirtland just did this huge, historic economic impact. We're growing. We continue to grow. But the only way we can continue that growth is if we sustain our quality of life," DeLaRosa said. "In order to preserve the viability of our state, we must invest in the well-being of our people, because when our communities thrive, so does our country."
Two years ago, the rate of rejection due to lack of specialty medical care at Cannon Air Force Base was almost 40%, according to the base's Public Affairs Chief Jackie Pienkowski. As a response, the base launched its circuit rider program last year, bringing in specialists from larger military hospitals in San Antonio, Texas, or Las Vegas, Nevada, on a rotating basis. Cannon's medical rejection rate is now down to 12%, Pienkowski said.
For now, the circuit rider program does not include pediatric neurologists, so Calhoun will continue her regular drives to Amarillo so her son can see a doctor.
"We are fortunate enough to be able to take time off work to be able to do that, but not everybody is," Calhoun said. "Having to pick between medical care and normal daily living functions is not fair."
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