State Senate and House GOP: Don’t Shift Insurance Costs to the States

The State Senate and House GOP issued the following statement today calling on the NH Congressional Delegation to avoid shifting insurance costs to the states.

Republicans call on Congressional delegation to avoid downshifting of healthcare costs

Concord, NH – Republican leaders in both the New Hampshire House and Senate have called upon the New Hampshire Congressional delegation to vote against the proposed healthcare legislation because of the dire impact it would have on the state budget. In a letter sent to the delegation over the weekend, State House Republicans warned of the dire consequences that would likely be caused by the downshifting of costs from the proposed healthcare legislation. If the health care legislation in its current form was adopted, it would be disastrous to New Hampshire’s already gloomy economy by adding countless numbers to our Medicaid roles.

Governor John Lynch, Senate President Sylvia Larsen, and Speaker Terie Norelli were asked to sign onto the non-partisan letter in meetings last week. They all declined to sign.

“New Hampshire’s economy is in turmoil. Spending has gone up by 25% in three years, unemployment is staggering, and the threat alone of having to come up with an additional billion dollars over the next decade should have all political leaders nervous. Senators Gregg and Shaheen are former governors of this state and know full well the dangers of federal downshifting. I hope they will vote with the best interests of their constituents in mind, and not based on political pressure from the White House,” stated Republican Leader Packard.

“We are very disappointed the state’s Democratic leaders refused to join us in our call to protect New Hampshire’s budget from federal downshifting. Our hope was this would be a bipartisan effort to protect New Hampshire taxpayers from further Washington intrusion, but unfortunately the state’s Democrats were not concerned enough to join us,” stated Minority Leader Peter Bragdon.

When the healthcare legislation left the House of Representatives, the additional number of people added would not include any federal dollars to fund this expansion which would add to our state’s ever increasing budget deficit, an increase of a billion dollars over ten years. As of now, the legislation in the Senate has not addressed all of those concerns. The letter, signed by House Republican Leader Sherm Packard (Londonderry) and Senate Minority Leader Peter Bragdon (Milford) specifically encouraged Senators Gregg and Shaheen to vote against the bill in order to avoid a larger budget deficit for the state of New Hampshire.