Sununu signs ‘landmark’ Medicaid expansion legislation, reversing previous stance on program
By
New Hampshire Union Leader
Gov.
The first-term Republican chief executive said he had many more than 24 influential players to thank for helping him broker a compromise on the state's expansion of Medicaid health insurance coverage, which without legislative action was to expire at the end of the year.
"This is probably the biggest single piece of landmark legislation I have been involved with as governor," Sununu said after the ceremony.
The governor has come full circle on the topic. He voted against the first Medicaid expansion contract as an executive councilor. At that time, he was critical of the program's complexity and the uncertainty of where future state matching money would come from.
This final package (SB 313) enabled the state to avoid any direct, state taxpayer dollars for this program by earmarking 5 percent of net profits from the sale of liquor, which had been going into the state's Alcohol and
"I knew this was going to be the most important challenge the state was going to face from day one," Sununu said during the ceremony at the
"There were a lot of cards dealt against us in this hand, and getting it right was going to be hard."
Manchester
"To have a five-year planning window is just tremendous," McCracken said.
For the first time, the new law, effective on
State Rep.
"This time around I think we did a much better job," Kotowski said. "We put a work requirement on the thing that is acceptable to everyone. We wanted to make sure those who weren't able to work have a way to prove why they can't."
Health and Human Services Commissioner
"This is a really good day, and I want to savor this moment. I really do. This is going to really help improve their lives and continue down the road," Meyers said. "This governor was engaged on this from day one and did so much hard work and really helped along the way to make it happen."
But a federal judge's decision Friday striking down a similar Medicaid work requirement for
The judge in the
New Hampshire Legal Assistance does not think it does, and Policy Director
McKinney notes that about 65 percent of the 52,000 people in the Medicaid expansion population are already working, and 77 percent come from working households.
"Extensive research reveals that work requirements do little or nothing to increase stable, long-term employment and do not decrease poverty," McKinney wrote. "In fact, work requirements have had the reverse effect, leading to an increase in extreme poverty in some areas of the country as individuals who do not secure employment also lose their eligibility for cash assistance."
But Senate Majority Leader
"One way or another we were going to pay for these services in the emergency room that is expensive or in the cost-effective community health care center as this will provide," Bradley said.
"I believe this institutionalizes a good
Sununu stressed it showed how
"We don't say enough about the dysfunction of
Health Politics State Government
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