Lucy Hodder

Thank you for your time and attention to this important issue. I am speaking against SB 134. SB 134 will leaving people throughout NH without health insurance. I was part of the intensive effort to help implement work requirements in New Hampshire in 2019. We tried! But applying unnecessary work requirement regulation to make it difficult for people to enroll in or keep their health insurance in New Hampshire will cost significantly more than it would save. SB 134 will also leave thousands of people open to medical debt and harm. Ganite Advantage is a low cost health insurance plan. Our friends and neighbors in the many towns you represent who have insurance through Granite Advantage are not eligible for other types of health insurance, By implementing work requirements, NH is spending unnessary tax dollars on cumbersome regulatory burdens that will leave people with no insurance at all. This expensive mistake will leave many individuals, seasonale and part-time workers, small business owners, care givers, people with chronic diseases, alone to confront our high cost and complicated health delivery system. Work requirements do not work! We tried them - the policy failed. Back in 2019, NH spent millions of dollars trying to upgrade technology, educate providers and the community, and implement the complicated NH legislation mandating 'work requirements.' While most of the people who had health insurance through the Granite Advantage program worked, had their own small businesses, took care of a loved one, attended school, had a disabling illness- they were not able to meet the cumbersome requirements or prove their exception. In 2019, 24,700 had to demonstrate 100 hours of work. Yet 17,000 of these people were going to lose coverage. When DHHS/DES reached out repeatedly, they were able to meaningfully reach 1% of people subject to the work requirement.. https://npr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com/legacy/sites/nhpr/files/MedicaidExpWorkHHS_letterJuly2019.pdf https://chhs.unh.edu/sites/default/files/media/2019/07/granite_advantage_update_7.19.19.pdf In brief, • Imposing the work requirement will require more staff at DHHS and in regional offices, cost up to $10 million in infrastructure build, training, mainenance and eligibility changes over the next few years, and result in thousands of people going without health insurance. • The monthly requirement to demonstrate work hours has proven to be a complete barrier for many people who have seasonal or part time work, own their own businesses, are care givers, etc. This penalizes the people that the Granite Advantage program was intended to support with affordable health insurance. • Most people on Medicaid Exp/Granite Advantage are working, looking for a job or caregiving for someone at home • Implementing the work requirement costs more in general funds per year than the state would save • SB 134 will result in significantly higher uncompensated care in your region of the state and put our health clinics and rural hospitals at risk of closing • Most of the people who access OUD treatment, are on Med Ex/Granite Advantage – opioid addiction and overdose deaths will increase • There are no options for health insurance that’s affordable for people who currently have coverage through Granite Advantage or health care!!! Meanwhile NH's legislature is making affordable heathcare even more unaffordable! There are fewer and fewer options for affordable heathcare either as health clinics are deprived of resources. • NH will lose millions of dollars of federal support for NH healthcare through implementing the work requirement • The two other states that have tried, Arkansas and Georgia, have failed programs • When NH tried, we failed. We can learn from our mistakes - not make the same ones again. Our communities deserve better. Thank you! Lucy Hodder The history of costs and impact on community providers: https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1044&context=ihpp