The Republican-led Senate will debate today whether to keep more than 48,000 low-income residents on subsidized health insurance.
The 24-member chamber is voting on a bill that seeks to extend New Hampshire’s Medicaid expansion program for two more years. The program is set to end this year unless lawmakers vote to reauthorize it.
The Republican-led House has already passed the bill, and the legislation is expected to clear the Senate.
Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan hasn’t said whether she will sign this specific proposal, but she says reauthorizing the health care program is a top priority and key to fighting the state’s opioid crisis, which claimed more than 400 lives last year.
The bill will use voluntary payments from hospitals and insurance carriers to help cover the state’s share of program costs, estimated at roughly $50 million over the next two years. The federal government pays 100 percent of program costs now, but will start reducing its investment next year.
The legislation, filed by Manchester Rep. Joe Lachance, also puts new work requirements in place for enrollees. It calls for all “able-bodied” adults covered by the health care program meet a weekly 30-hour work requirement, which could include community service or job training.
Republicans are divided over the program and the biggest fight has been over a so-called severability clause in the bill, which allows the program to continue even if federal overseers reject certain components of the plan.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, for example, has denied other states’ attempts to impose work requirements on the Medicaid expansion population.
While Democrats and a few Republicans are expected to pass the bill in the Senate, it’s likely that most Republican Senators will vote against it.
(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307, amorris@cmonitor.com or on Twitter
@amorrisNH.)