IN HER FIRST major act as governor, Kelly Ayotte recently revealed her new state budget and, in turn, her true intentions. The headline? Not only does the new Republican budget threaten access to health care for tens of thousands, but it also creates a new income tax on New Hampshire’s working families who need access to health care.
Ayotte’s plan forces families who are part of our state’s wildly successful, bipartisan Medicaid program to pay thousands of dollars annually in new premiums, taking more money out of the pockets of middle-class and low-income Granite Staters who are already struggling to make ends meet.
How bad is it? A single parent with two children making $67,000 a year will now have to come up with another $280 per month — money that could be going toward rent, groceries, or child care — or lose their children’s health insurance. It’s just not right.
Equally troubling is the proposal’s effect on low-income individuals receiving expanded Medicaid. For those earning under $20,000 annually, health care costs could rise by nearly $100 a month. While the state may argue that these increases are necessary to sustain Medicaid funding, they fail to consider the profound impact on fam ilies who rely on Medicaid to access essential health care. It is also difficult for the governor to argue that the poorest people should start paying 5% of their total income for health care while — in the same budget — giving the top 1% of earners vouchers worth thousands of dollars to offset the cost of sending their kids to private schools.
The playbook is clear — Governor Ayotte is following in lock step with the national Republican strategy of taking from the poor to benefit the wealthy. Just this past week, House Republicans in Congress voted to take health care, food security, and other resources for local communities away from thousands of Americans to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and multinational corporations. Even worse? These cuts — if signed by President Donald Trump — would trigger a law immediately ending our entire Medicaid Expansion program, ripping health coverage away from more than 60,000 people and raising insurance costs for all of us as a result.
It’s easy for the governor and her allies to claim these health care cost increases are “nominal,” but for thousands of New Hampshire families, this is anything but small change. These new mandatory payments aren’t just another bill — they are a Republican income tax on hardworking families that will make it even more challenging for them to afford the basics to stay healthy.
We know that when people must make hard choices for basics like rent and food, they simply won’t be able to pay the premium and will go without. They will go without wellness visits, go without substance misuse medications, and not receive mental health care. Patients will end up in emergency departments with critical and costly conditions, causing the cost of uncompensated care to skyrocket, and all of us will be left paying the bill with higher insurance rates. Medicaid, which has been the backbone of our progress in battling the addiction and opioid crisis, by implementing premiums will push us back to square one.
It is imperative that House Republicans take a step back and reassess Governor Ayotte’s concerning budget proposal, particularly its impact on low-income families and children. Medicaid has long been a lifeline for tens of thousands of low-income residents in the state, providing health coverage that many would otherwise go without. To raise premiums now only to balance the budget is a regressive approach that will widen the inequality gap in the state.
Instead of raising health care costs on those who can least afford it, New Hampshire should be looking at real solutions to make our economy fairer, ensuring that corporations and the wealthiest pay their fair share, rather than placing more burdens on working families.
At a time when it feels like billionaire CEOs are running the show, Democrats in the State House are going to fight tooth and nail to stand up for working families and do whatever we can to close the gap between the rich and poor so we all have a chance to live free.
State Representative
Laura Telerski
5 Shakespeare Road
Nashua, NH 03062-2430
Laura.Telerski@gc.nh.gov
Published in the March 10, 2025 Manchester Union Leader