New Hampshire News
| Bill would expand healthcare option |
| Posted by Jaime Contois (jcontois) on Jun 02 2009 at 7:39 PM |
Michael N. Cassese is a 22-year-old Keene State College student who hasn’t had health insurance for several years.
In September, Cassese — who said his family has a “huge history” of heart disease — lost his father, Mark Cassese, to heart failure. And more recently, Michael Cassese learned he suffers from high blood pressure, which the American Heart Association says “directly increases the risk of coronary heart disease.”
While Cassese said he can get some basic medical needs taken care of on campus, without insurance, he said, “It’d be really hard for me to afford any other treatment.”
But a new bill, if passed, could give Cassese access to the affordable health care he lacks.
Senate Bill 115 would enable adults under the age of 26 — who earn below a certain income threshold and cannot be included on a family plan — to buy coverage through N.H. Healthy Kids.
Established by a legislative act in 1993, N.H. Healthy Kids provides no-cost or discounted health and dental insurance to children up to the age of 19.
Sen. Molly M. Kelly, D-Keene, is one of many legislators sponsoring the bill, which is scheduled to go before the Senate for a hearing Tuesday.
“I think that there’s a group there that has a need for health care,” Kelly said. “Many of them go without health care, which is unhealthy for them and certainly costly for our communities.”
One of these people is Elice L. Laughner of Nelson.
At 26, Laughner falls just outside the eligibility requirements of Senate Bill 115 but said she’s lacked health insurance for a year and a half.
As a full-time graphic design student at
And buying health insurance on her own, she said, isn’t an option.
“There’s no way,” she said. “It would take half of what I make per month.”
According to Senate Bill 115’s primary sponsor, Kathleen G. Sgambati, D-Tilton, although some of N.H. Healthy Kids’ programs rely on state and federal support, extending a health care option to those under the age of 26 would incur no additional costs to either.
This is because the young adults would only be eligible for a buy-in program, through which they’d pay their premiums in full but would enjoy the reduced rates that can come from the bargaining power of a group, she said.
And since N.H. Healthy Kids is a nonprofit organization, she added, it could provide coverage that’s more affordable than what a young adult could find on the market by himself.
Sgambati said this latest legislative initiative picks up where a previous law, signed by Gov. John H. Lynch in 2007, left off.
House Bill 790 expanded the definition of dependents that can be included on family plans to include adults up to the age of 26.
But since companies that provide their own insurance aren’t governed by this and some parents don’t have family insurance plans — or insurance at all — Sgambati said, “That still left a fairly large number in that age group without access to affordable insurance.”
And making sure these people are covered is in the general public’s best interest, she said.
If an uninsured person is injured in a fall, “They’re going to get served in
Kelly, similarly, called the bill “the smart financial decision.”
Sgambati said she doesn’t know whether the bill will face any opposition.
“It will be interesting to see on Tuesday,” she said.
Meanwhile, when asked by The Sentinel whether he’d be interested in the health care coverage Senate Bill 115 could provide, Cassese’s answer was short:
“Of course.”
And as legislators tackle the issue in
As for the fact that she has none, Laughner said, “It’s always on my mind. ... If I get hurt, that’s it.”
Anika Clark can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1432, or aclark@keenesentinel.com