Lebanon
At a forum organized by Kuster’s office on the Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital campus, panelists said Upper Valley residents have benefited from several provisions under the act, which then-President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010.
Alice Peck Day’s Community Health Director Nancy DuMont said she knew of a middle-aged man who had been without health insurance and would have died if it wasn’t for Medicaid expansion covering his $425-a-dose medication. Others, including Kuster, said hundreds of substance abuse victims wouldn’t have had the heath care coverage to get clean.
Among the substance abuse victims are the 100 people that came through Nashua Fire Station No. 4’s doors between Thanksgiving and January seeking help through the “Safe Station” program, an outreach program launched first in Manchester to help addicts get clean with no threat of criminal liability, Kuster told a room of about 30 people.
Of those 100 people, 80 percent of them were eligible for Medicaid because of the expansion under the Affordable Care Act, Kuster said.
“It wouldn’t be possible to have this program, which will change lives, (without the ACA),” Kuster said. “For me, that is a really potent example about what would happen if we lost this kind of coverage.”
Each of the eight panelists spoke during the 90-minute forum, saying a few words about how repealing or replacing the Affordable Care Act could be detrimental to their organization and the people they assist on a regular basis.
Among the speakers was Harrison Drinkwater, a volunteer board member at Headrest, a Lebanon-based nonprofit that offers a 24-hour crisis hotline, a 10-bed residential treatment program and outpatient counseling services.
Between 40 and 60 percent of the clients who visit Headrest receive financial support through the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, Drinkwater said.
“The Affordable Care Act makes it possible for clients to pay for services and for us to stay in business treating them,” Drinkwater said. “Given the opioid crisis in New Hampshire, we can only expect that there will be more need for Headrest services now and in the future. There has been an intangible benefit that has been created by the Affordable Care Act.”
Suellen Griffin, the president and CEO of West Central Behavioral Health, which has offices in Lebanon, Newport and Claremont, said it’s “not exactly a surprise” that people have died or are dying from overdoses, given that it was only about two years ago that substance abuse coverage was born under the ACA. There is “no way” the state can combat the opioid crisis if it doesn’t further its mission in helping those with drug addictions, she said.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is waiting to see what happens at the federal level before coming up with a plan for where to go in the event the ACA is repealed, Griffin said.
“We don’t have a plan in the state of New Hampshire,” she said. “No plan doesn’t make us feel very good.”
Among the other panelists in attendance on Thursday were state Rep. Susan Almy, D-Lebanon; Havah Armstrong-Walther, of the Special Needs Support Center in Lebanon; and representatives from Alice Peck Day, including President and CEO Sue Mooney.
Armstrong-Walther noted how a provision under the ACA has aided those with mental health issues and other special needs, while Mooney talked about the impact for rural hospitals like APD.
Kuster noted that she is hopeful that Republican lawmakers have shifted their stance from “repeal and replace” to “repair.”
“I think they are starting to realize that many parts of the Affordable Care Act are very popular,” she said, such as a provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26.
Asked afterward what her main focus is for the ACA forums she is holding throughout the state, Kuster said the opioid epidemic.
The state is down to 250 treatment beds as a result of a lack of reimbursement for services, Kuster said.
When people are suffering from addiction, several other aspects in society suffer, she said: Crime rates increase and families fall apart.
“It all has a ripple effect,” Kuster said.
The state, under the Affordable Care Act, “finally” has health insurance programs to aid those with substance use and mental health issues, and now, “Trump is talking about pulling the rug out,” she said.
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., also held a forum on Thursday about the Affordable Care Act, meeting with an array of people including New London Hospital President and CEO Bruce King at Newport Health Center.
Similarly, those who attended that discussion talked about patients who have benefited from the ACA.
Kuster also made a stop in Claremont on Thursday, convening at Canam-Bridges to discuss the recent passage of her Promoting Travel, Commerce, and National Security act.
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.