Will State Sen. Stiles flip-flop again?

Will Republican State Sen. Nancy Stiles flip-flop yet again? Prior to the 2012 election, Sen. Stiles voted against both the notorious Stand-Your Ground legislation and  school vouchers, which would give public tax money to private schools.

After re-districting, through clever gerrymandering, Republicans gained a 13 to 11 majority in the State Senate, even though they actually received fewer state senate votes statewide. Sen. Stiles benefited from the gerrymandering, which changed her district from one that leans Democratic to one that tilts Republican. And soon thereafter, Stiles voting patterns changed. She flip-flopped and voted both for Stand Your Ground and school vouchers.

Sen. Stiles has recently been a member of a nine-person commission tasked with studying Medicaid Expansion in New Hampshire. After extensive committee deliberations that lasted over the summer, Stiles voted to support a plan that was a modified version of one passed by the Democratic State House.

Now, both the full House and Senate have reconvened and are considering the commission's recommendations.  Both the Democratic State House and the Republican State Senate have come up with their own plans.  The Democratic House has compromised considerably with Republicans. It now supports enrolling the 49,000 working poor eligible for Medicaid Expansion  into a government-run program initially and then transitioning them into private insurance as soon as an insurance exchange becomes operative. That should please Republicans who favor private insurance.

But it doesn't. Republicans demand a one-year deadline on the establishment of an insurance exchange. If that unreasonably short deadline is not met, the working poor will lose their government insurance and be left right back where they started with no health insurance at all.

Rumors persist that State Sen. Stiles has changed her position and now favors the one-year deadline. The proof will be in Sen. Stiles' upcoming vote - will she flip-flop yet again?

What is at stake here? As Gov. Hassan noted recently in Hampton (11/15/13), " These are hard-working men and women who deserve the security of health insurance. They are our health care workers, our restaurant employees, construction workers, retail clerks. They work in our schools and local grocery stores. People who struggle to make ends meet and put food on the table while earning less than $16,000 a year."

"There is nearly $2.5 billion available in federal funding  to  allow them finally to access health insurance, while creating jobs and strengthening our  economy.  The federal government will pay 100 percent of the costs for the first three years and no less than 90 percent of the costs thereafter. For every day that we delay past January 1, we stand to lose half a million federal dollars per day."

The outcome rests largely in Sen.  Stiles' hands. Given the closeness of the Democratic and Republican vote in the State Senate, she can make or break this bill in the near future.