Union Leader: Health Care Compact Law a “Frivolity”

Like a broken clock that’s right twice a day, the Union Leader made the right call on House Bill 1560. The legislation proposes a novel end-run around the federal health care law by creating an interstate health care compact that would replace all federal health care programs — including Medicare and Medicaid — with block grants.

Supporters of the proposal claim it would give New Hampshire the “authority to enact state laws that supersede any and all federal laws regarding health care” within the state. They suffer from “delusions of grandeur,” writes the Union Leader.

HB 1560 declares that states in the compact have a “right” to direct payments “funded by Congress as mandatory spending” to implement, presumably, their own health care laws. The idea that Congress would approve a multi-state compact that lets states ignore federal laws but keep all money intended to implement those laws is preposterous. This bill is a frivolity upon which legislators should not waste their time.

ICYMI: Feds Step In When Executive Council Fails to Act

When the Executive Council voted not to renew the state’s contract with Planned Parenthood to provide Title X family planning services, 16,000 New Hampshire residents were left without health care services ranging from birth control to cancer exams.

This week, the federal Department of Health and Human Services stepped in to protect the health of Granite State families by awarding a replacement grant to Planned Parenthood citing the “urgent need.”

Title X family planning services have not been provided in the areas of the state previously served by PPNNE since the contract between NHDHHS and PPNNE ended on June 30, 2011. There is an urgent need to reinstate services with an experienced provider that is familiar with the provision of Title X family planning services and applicable laws, regulations and administrative requirements, and has a history of successfully providing services in these areas of the state.

Councilor Dan St. Hilaire, one of the three councilors voting against renewing the contract, said he opposed the contract because Planned Parenthood also provides abortion services.

“Actually funding an agency that performs the actual event is something that I would object to, and I have objected to. That’s what I voted against it.”

St. Hilaire was silent on where the 16,000 men, women and teenagers would now turn for vital health care services including cervical cancer screenings, breast exams and sexually transmitted infections. Following the Executive Council’s dereliction of duty, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen stepped in and asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to consider a direct federal contract. She applauded the federal government’s action.

“Women in every part of the state deserve access to affordable reproductive health services, and Planned Parenthood is a critical provider of those services in our state,” Shaheen said. “These clinics also provide vital preventive care, such as screenings for breast and cervical cancer. In some parts of New Hampshire, Planned Parenthood is the only provider of these preventive services to low-income women. I am glad the federal government has stepped up to provide this new contract, so that women in every part of New Hampshire will have somewhere to turn for basic health issues.”