With supporters squabbling, delays, and confusion on the rise nationally over the imminent launch of President Obama’s health care law, low-income people in New Hampshire are watching the calendar, caught up in their own apprehensive uncertainty.
Republicans in the Legislature have blocked the state from joining in a federally funded expansion of the Medicaid program. Up to 58,000 Granite State residents are in line to be deprived of coverage.
Decisions may not be concluding yet. The state has created a commission to report back with nonbinding proposals in October, giving people slim hopes of a turnaround and leaving possible beneficiaries in a state of oblivion. Temporarily, Jan. 1 is the deadline for the legal mandate that individuals acquire insurance.
This a technical bind and confusion that is encouraging predictions of turmoil surrounding Obamacare’s liftoff, and instilling anger among representatives of the poor in New Hampshire who say Republicans are seeking to disrupt the national health care law.
A broad national expansion of Medicaid was a vital component of the 2010 health care law, but the US Supreme Court in 2012 deemed the development optional for states.
The effect is a crazy-quilt of policies budding around the country, including within New England, emphasizing how health care access is becoming highly dependent on where you live.
Maine was the first to opt out, followed by New Hampshire, at least temporarily. At the other end of the gamut, neighboring Vermont is pursuing a universal health care program like Massachusetts.
“I’m very skeptical that we should expand Medicaid and I get more skeptical every day as other aspects of Obamacare can’t seem to get implemented,” said state Senate majority leader Jeb Bradley, a Republican who cited doubt over the law’s scheduled 2014 launch for their opposition to the expansion, to Boston Globe.
