Anne Hayes

Gather serves food-insecure residents in the Greater Seacoast community that will be impacted by this bill. I spoke with one of our members recently who shared that she needs our services and probably always will. She explained that her husband is disabled and she has an adult son who is autistic and needs care. What she could make working would not cover the cost of his care, not even close, so the more she worked, the farther behind they would get. There are so many stories of people who are doing the very best that they can to provide for their families and ensure they have the care they need. Why would we cut off their access to Medicaid? That will just increase their costs, as they need the care and will have to buy other insurance, and it will leave nonprofits like Gather to try to fill the gaps in other areas like food, housing, fuel assistance, etc. We can only do so much with the funding we have. We need the state to do its part to support the most vulnerable in our community.