Activists gather to focus on improving N.H. health care

BY RACHEL GRACE TOUSSAINT
newsletter@seacoastonline.com

EXETER - Bring up the state of health care in New Hampshire and people are ready to talk.

New Hampshire citizens want better health care services, if not for themselves, then for their loved ones. But the million-dollar question is, where does the funding for these better services come from?

Exeter area residents, health care workers, activists and legislators came together last week to discuss these very issues. Called the Community Meeting on Health Care, the event was organized by the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance. The purpose of the meeting, according to Executive Director Sam Mekrut, was to open the lines of communication on health care issues between residents and legislators.

"NHCA is an organization that works to bring people together in communities throughout the state. We are particularly focused on health care," said Mekrut. "We want to focus more on Exeter and the surrounding communities because we feel like this is an area where there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed, and that people need to come together and get more involved in public policy arena and politics in general."

Along with NHCA, SeaCare Health Services, Exeter Hospital, Lamprey Health Care, and Southern New Hampshire Area Education Center took part in planning the evening.

Several health care experts spoke at the meeting, offering staggering data on New Hampshire's current health care situation. Kathy Crompton, executive director of SeaCare Health Care, an organization that provides health care services to those who can't afford them, was one such speaker.

According to Crompton, SeaCare has delivered services to the uninsured in 21 towns in Rockingham County over the past 10 years. Those on the program usually pay a co-payment of $5, and receive primary preventive care, have chronic illness treated, benefit from a medication bridge program, and receive home visiting program and dental program benefits.

"Through this network we've been able to provide over $3 million in donated care to folks in this part of the country," said Crompton. "But we realize it is really only one piece of a much larger issue and we can't be the only solution to such a huge problem."

According to Crompton, there are 41 million people in the United States who are uninsured. Eight percent of those people, or 90,000 people in New Hampshire, are without health care.

Eight out of 10 uninsured Americans can't afford health care and aren't eligible for public programs.

"There are folks who truly fall through the cracks, and the crack becomes wider every year," Crompton said.

Exeter resident Maggie Hassan said the state needs to treat health care the way it treats snow plowing.

"We need to talk about treating health care as an infrastructure, as a utility if you will, and not just a consumer good," said Hassan.

Dr. Sally Oxnard, a physician at Lamprey Health Care since 1976, has seen many patients struggle with lack of health insurance.

Lamprey is one of 10 community health care establishments in the state.

According to Oxnard, half of its bills are paid by patient fees, and the other half by federal grants, money from the state and money earmarked at local town meetings.

"In 2002, we had 65,700 med visits," said Oxnard. "Forty-four percent of our patients have no insurance, and/or income levels under 200 percent of federal poverty guidelines."

Paula Smith, director of Southern New Hampshire Area Education Center, spoke of her own personal struggle with funding health insurance.

"My family plan increased 22 percent over last year, and increased 21 percent prior to that," Smith said. "So I'm struggling to pay almost a 50 percent increase over the past two years. And as a single mom, it's a challenge. I'm not alone. I look at: What do I pay for how sick my family is, and do I keep it (insurance) or don't I?"

According to Smith, certain factors drive up health insurance rates: increasing malpractice costs, technological innovation, an increasing number of health care dollars spent on end-of-life care, and a nursing crisis.

Dr. Wendy Gladstone, a pediatrician at Exeter Pediatrics since 1980, said that while many New Hampshire adults are struggling, the situation for kids is much better owing to the state's Healthy Kids Program.

"The biggest unmet need for children is access to dental care. We're severely impaired with low numbers of dentists in general and difficulty with programs providing dental coverage," said Gladstone. "Other needs are access to mental health, substance abuse and alcohol abuse. We also need to be thinking about rising rates of obesity and falling rates of physical activity."

Dentist Nate Swanson has seen many of his patients suffering, too.

"Dental care is seen as a luxury and it's one of the very first things to go," said Swanson.

According to Swanson, dental care has become expensive in the last 10-15 years and family income hasn't gone up proportionately. But as people neglect their teeth, Swanson believes they neglect themselves as a whole.

"Dentistry affects people's nutrition and the way they maintain the rest of their health, and it also affects self-image," Swanson said.

Representative Rogers Johnson (District 83), added another element to dental issues in New Hampshire.

"We don't have enough dental hygienists in the state now. We need to get more of these people into the state who are willing to provide these services."

Much of the evening's discussion centered on House Bill 760, which would raise the cigarette tax to equate charging smokers an extra $1 per pack.

"We're hoping that legislators will look at tobacco tax proposal (House Bill 760). Because a $1 increase in the tobacco tax will give us $150 million in New Hampshire. The more you charge for cigarettes, the less teen-agers will smoke and most people start smoking when they're teen-agers," said Oxnard.

According to Representative Jeff Gilbert (District 83), House Bill 760 was not reviewed by the House last week as planned owing to the blizzard. It will be reviewed on March 3.

"If we were to raise tax, any increase in revenue would go for what purposes?" said Gilbert. "The bill contains a dedicated fund, which means that proceeds from that incremental tax increase would go for various purposes. Dedicated funds in general are so-called 'off-budget,' and never get reviewed on a regular basis as budget process goes forward regularly. Programs are expanded or contracted based on the revenue in the dedicated fund, not based on need."

Sen. Burt Cohen said he felt the funds should go directly to preventing and mitigating youth smoking.

"We have to do whatever we can to stop young people from getting hooked. When the price of cigarettes goes up, that is a significant disincentive for kids smoking," Cohen said. "It's appropriate that money be dedicated exclusively to tobacco-related issues."

Cohen added that more cooperation is needed from all facets of the community to make health care in the state more efficient and helpful to all residents.

"The governor talks about funding needs and not wants, these are not wants, these are needs. Solutions have to be creative. We need participation from all different levels - individuals, towns, communities, and federal government has much greater role to play in providing for the common good," said Cohen. "It's not easy, especially in these economic times, but now is when it's needed probably more than ever. Your interest in this and pressure on this will certainly make a difference on a state level and federal level."

| Back to the Exeter News-Letter | Email this Article |