ICYMI: Laconia Daily Sun - Medicaid recipients tell Pappas they don't want to lose their independence

In case you missed it, following House Republicans continuing to push forward pieces of their harmful reconciliation bill, Laconia Daily Sun’s Gabriel Perry reported on Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) holding a roundtable conversation at Lakes Region Community Services with local health care providers, advocates, and Medicaid recipients on the importance of Medicaid to Granite Staters and how cuts would negatively impact New Hampshire communities. 

Read the full story from Laconia Daily Sun here.

Key Excerpts: 

• “We want to make sure we’re doing everything possible to protect what’s important to New Hampshire and to individuals that deserve access to the best care and the best support services in the state,” Pappas said Monday afternoon.
• Pursuant to the expiration of an agreement between the state and hospitals systems, both the budgets proposed by the governor’s office and the House of Representatives would reduce allocations for Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments by 61% — $138.3 million, according to NHFPI. 
• Kevin Brett of Laconia lives in Sunrise Towers, a Laconia Housing development, and relies on Medicaid assistance and the Choices for Independence program, which supports adults and helps keep them in their own residence rather than transitioning into a nursing home or assisted living facility. “... The help of Medicaid and the physical therapies and stuff like that got me to where I lost all that weight and with CFI, gave me a chance to live again,” Brett said.
• One in every seven Granite Staters were enrolled in Medicaid in 2023, according to New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute, and among them were almost 30% of the residents of the City of Laconia.
• Partnership for Public Health Chief Executive Officer Tammy Carmichael said, “The hospital’s already looking at cuts in that piece of funding. It’s a system that’s already very precarious, the game is already precarious, and pulling that piece out — I don’t know how our health care system and our safety net is going to survive.”