NH Senate Approves Improvements to the Granite Advantage Health Care Program

March 28, 2019

Contact Name: Sara Persechino

Phone: (603) 271-3479

Email: Sara.Persechino@leg.state.nh.us

CONCORD—Today, the New Hampshire Senate passed SB 290-FN, 14-10, which would make improvements to the New Hampshire Granite Advantage Health Care Program, clarifying the work and community engagement requirement.

Prime sponsor Senator Cindy Rosenwald (D-Nashua) released the following statement after the vote:

“With the Trump administration’s continued efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, it is incumbent upon every New Hampshire legislator to put systems in place to protect the health and wellbeing of Granite Staters. SB 290-FN clarifies and improves the bipartisan work and community requirement. Nothing in this bill will erase the work requirement.

We have recently seen what happens when work requirements go wrong—in Arkansas 18,000 people have lost health benefits already. Just yesterday, that work requirement and another in Kentucky were blocked by a federal judge whose opinions instruct the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to reconsider the states’ work requirement applications with an eye on the effect on poor people who depend on coverage.

Given these realities, it is disappointing that my Republican colleagues voted against these improvements today. New Hampshire deserves better.”