As part of my committment to support affordable health care, I was pleased to support SB 313, the bill to reauthorize NH’s expanded Medicaid another five years. While I agree with the NH Business and Industry Association (BIA) that the bill may not be perfect, the business and health care communities agreed that it’s much better than the alternative—allowing the program to sunset. That would push 50,000 Granite Staters off healthcare coverage and leave well in excess of $400 milliion in annual federal support on the table. Elimanating expanded Medicaid would also result in significant cost-shifting to the business community in the form of higher health insurance premiums for employers and employees.
The reimbursement rate to providers is lower than in the past, but this bill helps insure a much stronger coordination of care for individual recipients, reduced program costs and better medical outcomes.
I supported this bill when it first came to the legislature in 2014 and again in 2019. I understand that this is conditioned on several principles including improved patient outcomes, no additional increase in business taxes to fund the program, and that the federal government continues to fund the program at promised levels.