Medicaid Expansion Status in Concord
On Tuesday Nov 12 the NH House and Senate will be holding separate public hearings on Medicaid Expansion. The House session begins at 10:00am; the Senate session begins at 1:00pm in room 100 of the Senate Office Building. The more important of the two sessions is the Senate session at 1:00pm.
As we know a special commission met for 3 1/2 months to "learn" about Medicaid Expansion and to make a recommendation whether or not to accept $2.4 billion in funds to cover the poorest wage earners in the state. The vote was 6-2 (one abstention) to expand Medicaid in NH with a little twist to use the funds to require the recipients to buy private insurance through the exchange - they call it the NH solution.
Well it turns out all was for naught - The recommendation of the commission has been pretty much thrown out and Senate President Morse has created another Senate committee comprised of 4 Republicans and 2 Democrats (he originally had it 5 Rs to 1 D!) The only good news is that Senator Sanborn (R Bedford) is not involved this time - he seems to have been moved aside by Sen Morse. Sen Morse has been working with Governor Hassan insisting on a more stringent proposal that will make it difficult for recipients to truly afford health insurance. The NH House is also working with the Governor on even a different version. The two bills need to come together prior to Nov 21. A stretch to say the least.
Find out what's happening in Amherstfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Senator Morse is quoted in the paper has saying that the senate was correct in not accepting Medicaid expansion in June because it is so complex. Well that is a little disingenuous. It is complex because the republican led senate has added so many conditions to medicaid expansion that it became complex. It did not start out that way. There is some concern that the federal government will not approve the approach that the NH Senate is demanding. If the federal government will not approve the exceptions for NH then the Senate will turn down the $2.4 billion. Quite frankly I wouldn't be surprised if this weren't the goal some republican senators have had from the beginning.
There is NO downside to Medicaid Expansion; however, there is huge downside if we do not expand medicaid. The federal government is reducing subsidies to hospitals who treat patients who cannot afford care. A short quote from the article: 'In a perverse twist, many of the poor people who rely on safety-net hospitals will be doubly unlucky. A government subsidy, little known outside health policy circles but critical to the hospitals’ survival, is being sharply reduced under the new health law. The subsidy, which for years has helped defray the cost of uncompensated and undercompensated care, was cut substantially on the assumption that the hospitals would replace much of the lost income with payments for patients newly covered by Medicaid or private insurance."
Find out what's happening in Amherstfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
There are 13 people in our State Senate with the power to deny affordable health care to tens of thousands of low, very low, NH wage earners. If those 13 people have their way there will be tens of thousands of losers and those 13 will consider themselves "winners."
Senators need to hear from us. Perhaps we need Senator Bragdon to meet with us again before the vote.
Please write/call Senator Bragdon and let him know your position.
