To the editor:
This month marks the second anniversary of Medicaid expansion. Known here as the New Hampshire Health Protection Program (NHHPP), it temporarily provides Medicaid-funded health insurance for poor and unemployed adults.
Lee Nyquist, N.H. Senate candidate for District 9, wants to make it permanent. He knows how important it is to put healthcare within reach of the poor and unemployed. He knows how important Medicaid expansion is to the survival of rural hospitals.
As an RN retired from Crotched Mountain Rehab and as a Greenfield selectman, I know personally that there are hundreds of people in our Senate district who need help.
Beyond regular medical needs, Medicaid expansion helps drive the fight against the opioid epidemic – and that affects all of us. Opioid use in New Hampshire has crossed all socioeconomic boundaries. Whether you consider drug addiction a disease or a moral failure, the financial ability to get help is central to solving the problem. NHHPP provides 40 percent of our substance abuse-recovery funds.
It also protects community hospitals from having to provide uncompensated care. According to one survey, the majority of recent rural hospital closings happened in states that had not adopted Medicaid expansion. In order to protect our rural hospitals, we should maintain this program. Lee Nyquist is committed to that fight.
Medicaid expansion currently serves about 48,000 people in New Hampshire. When it was OKed in 2014, it included a provision that would terminate coverage at the end of 2016, unless the state legislature approved funding to extend it beyond that point. Earlier this year, the New Hampshire Legislature extended it through 2018, but yearly renewals create uncertainty for working families and rural hospitals. Lee Nyquist wants to make Medicaid expansion available on-going.
Let’s get behind him.
Margaret A. Charig Bliss
Greenfield