Pappas Continues Fight to Lower Health Care and Energy Costs for Granite Staters
Today Congressman Chris Pappas (NH-01) held events focused on his efforts to lower the cost of energy and health care for Granite Staters. As he introduces new legislation to provide direct relief to families struggling with high energy costs, Congressional Republicans refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits and the Trump administration’s widespread tariffs are raising the cost of everyday essentials, with New Hampshire families paying $2,100 more last year.
On energy costs, Pappas met with community resource organizations, including Southern New Hampshire Services, The Upper Room, Moms Rising, and Archways. Last week Pappas introduced new legislation to provide a refundable tax credit to families with high energy costs. During this conversation, he heard how his legislation would help Granite Staters and save households hundreds of dollars a year on energy.
On health care costs, Pappas sat down with health care leaders from Amoskeag Health, Great Seacoast, Lamprey Health Care, Harborcare, and Mental Health Center of Great Manchester, New Hampshire organizations including New Futures, New Hampshire NAMI, and Makin it Happen, and constituents about the ongoing need to restore ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits and his fight in Congress to provide relief from the soaring cost of health care that Granite Staters are experiencing.
“Families, working people, and seniors across New Hampshire are being slammed by higher prices on essentials from health care to home heating, forcing more and more people to make difficult decisions about what they can afford. Electricity prices were up nearly 7% last year, and natural gas prices have doubled. Granite Staters are now paying annual insurance premiums double or even triple what they paid last year. People need action and direct relief now,” said Congressman Pappas. “Rising costs are being exacerbated by the administration’s chaos and Republican inaction in Congress. That’s why I will continue to push back against wrongheaded policies, reach across the aisle to get things done, and work to directly lower costs for families and put more money back in their pockets.”
Background:
New Hampshire has some of the highest energy costs in the nation and for lower and middle income families, including the 25% of New Hampshire households that earn less than $50,000 each year, energy costs pose a significant burden. Pappas’s bill provides individuals and households who spend more than 3% of their income on energy with a refundable tax credit equal to 75% of the excess amount they spend on energy.
Under Pappas’s bipartisan Energy Burden Tax Credit Act a family in New Hampshire that makes $50,000 and pays the average cost of energy in New Hampshire, about $2,676 per year ($223 a month), would receive a refundable credit of $882, effectively reducing their energy costs by a third.
Pappas supports legislation that would have prevented extreme increases in health care premiums by extending the enhanced premium tax credits that keep health insurance affordable for Granite Staters and small businesses. In December, he helped introduce the bipartisan CommonGround 2025 framework, which includes a two-year extension of health insurance premium savings for American families. The Members backing the framework also co-signed a letter urging House and Senate leadership to meet with them to discuss the framework and a constructive pathway forward in both chambers.
Pappas led the call for the Trump administration to extend the ACA open enrollment period and subsequently introduced the Right to Enroll Act, which would require the Department of Health and Human Services to extend the enrollment period through May 1, 2026. As negotiations to extend these critical cost savings continue, Pappas’s legislation would ensure families aren’t forced to make decisions about their health care coverage for next year without sufficient time to consider their changing options. Pappas also leads the Protecting Access to Affordable Coverage Act, legislation to assist Americans in alleviating paperwork burdens and making informed enrollment decisions by extending the 2026 Open Enrollment period, restoring auto-reenrollment and the Special Enrollment Period (SEP), and funding the Navigator Program.