As middle-aged small business owners who moved to rural New Hampshire, my husband and I poured everything we had into building a life here — in a state we believed valued independence, hard work and community. Our family and our small business made it through COVID as we settled into northern Grafton County.
It wasn’t until this January, after years of economic hardship, that we were finally able to afford tax-subsidized health care through the Affordable Care Act. It was the first time in years that we were able to go to the doctor without fear of being buried in medical bills and have some peace of mind about seeking necessary preventive care.
That sense of security is now under threat because of Donald Trump’s tax bill, which will leave more than 46,000 Granite Staters without access to health care and could force our closest medical center to close its doors. In New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte proudly signed a state budget that raises health care costs, imposes new Medicaid premiums and increases prescription drug costs for those who can least afford it. Because of Donald Trump and Kelly Ayotte’s senseless and out-of-touch agenda, we are left with no sense of security that we will be able to afford preventive care or an affordable emergency room visit should anything happen to us on the job.
Thanks to the Trump administration, these cuts mean that for myself and my neighbors in northern New Hampshire, access to care could vanish entirely. Our local hospital could be forced to close, and we would have nowhere to go in an emergency. We could be left driving an hour or more to reach the nearest emergency department. Preventive care will become a luxury again, and lifesaving care will become a gamble. This is the terrifying reality that Trump and Ayotte have created for Granite Staters.
But the attacks on Medicaid and health care don’t stop there. Donald Trump has frozen funds that allow Planned Parenthood facilities — which provide cancer screenings, STI treatment and primary care — to be reimbursed through Medicaid. Nearly 15.4% of Grafton County residents are on Medicaid and in neighboring Coös County about 17.1% of residents are on Medicaid. These are residents who depend on community clinics like Planned Parenthood and on our rural health care facilities to accept Medicaid, especially in an emergency.
As hard as it is to imagine, Donald Trump and Kelly Ayotte’s reckless agenda hits deeper than life-saving care. My husband and I wonder if or when we will be able to retire, or whether we’ll even be able to stay in our home as the bills pile up. While working families struggle, Trump and Ayotte have both passed budgets that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest top 1% of Granite Staters. While the wealthy get tax breaks, working families like mine are being asked to shoulder more of the burden. Our property taxes continue to rise, the cost of living is skyrocketing and our community’s public schools are being left behind — all to use our tax dollars to pay for private and religious school vouchers that are proven to benefit the rich.
We built a life in New Hampshire because we believed in the ‘Live Free or Die’ values, but right now that is becoming more out of reach for families like mine. We want health care, housing, education for our children and equitable living for all New Hampshire communities. We desperately need working class representation that will propose a budget that is not tone-deaf and completely out of touch with the issues that New Hampshire families care about most.