NMSA 23-3-1. Purpose of miners' hospital; admission and maintenance of

23-3-1. Purpose of miners' hospital; admission and maintenance of patients. The miners' hospital of New Mexico is intended and meant to be for the free treatment and care of resident miners of the state of New Mexico, who may become sick or injured in the line of their occupation; and all lodging and medical care shall be free of charge, as shall all other expenses incurred by the patient, except in cases where such patient is possessed of property and means sufficient to enable him to pay the actual costs and charges incurred by his attendance at such hospital, in which case the governing authority may make provision for his being charged and paying such expenses incurred. Provided, however, the governing authority may take in other patients for treatment and care, upon the payment of all expenses therefor by the patients, when they may be received and treated without excluding any miners from the hospital. History: Laws 1903, ch. 2, § 9; 1907, ch. 48, § 1; Code 1915, § 5106; C.S. 1929, § 130-501; 1941 Comp., § 5-401; 1953 Comp., § 13-6-1; Laws 1968, ch. 17, § 9.