Fosters Daily Democrat

Democrat Staff Writer

EXETER - Proposed cuts to health care funding coupled with expanding need spell a deepening crisis.

That's what health care providers told a panel of area legislators Tuesday at a community forum.

Several in the audience at the well-attended event said they feared the effect Gov. Craig Benson's proposed five percent cut to payments to providers will have on their ability to deliver services.

The cut represents a loss of about $9 million in state aid. Factoring the loss of federal matching funds, the shortfall comes to about $18 million, said State Rep. Rogers Johnson, R-Stratham.

Jay Couture, executive director of Seacoast Mental Health, said the state's mental health centers are being called on to provide more services at a time when fewer and fewer people receive care at the state hospital, which now has only 140 beds.

It costs the Seacoast center $9.6 million to operate a year, but the operation is facing $1 million in cuts under the proposed state budget.

"There is no way we can do this without putting a big hole in our safety net," Couture said.

Sally Oxnard, a doctor at Lamprey Community Health Center in Newmarket, one of 10 community health center in the state, said the center provided services for 65,700 medical visits last year and almost half of the patients - 44 percent - had no health insurance.

Oxnard said she sees more uninsured working families and more uninsured babies.

According to the health care advocacy group Families USA, almost 43 million Americans, including 90,000 in the Granite State, are without health care.

The situation is less than promising when considering the changing dynamics of the U.S. economy.

Kathy Crompton, executive director of SeaCare Health Services located in Exeter, which provides health care for the uninsured, said two million Americans lost health care coverage when they lost jobs last year.

Looking closer to home, where the state has shed thousands of well-paying construction and manufacturing positions, many newly created jobs are in the service sector such as retail and food service where health coverage is traditionally lacking, she said.

"So, we are looking at a declining economy," Crompton said. "We are looking at folks who definitely need care."

In an attempt to seek relief for the deepening problem, individuals and groups such as New Hampshire Healthy Families Campaign support House Bill 760, which would levy a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes.

This would tax generate an estimated $150 million annually for tobacco prevention, community health care centers, health care coverage for 12,000 of the state's 15,000 uninsured children.

On a positive note, pediatrician Wendy Gladstone of Exeter Pediatrics said the state's Healthy Kids initiative, which provides health care coverage to uninsured children, has made the state 4th best in the nation in terms of the percentage of children who receive health care coverage.

To get on the right track in approaching the health care crisis, Exeter resident Maggie Hassan urged the legislators to participate in a statewide discussion on how to prioritize needs.

"We need an honest discussion about what our priorities are and how to fund them," she said.

Other concerned citizens said the state needs to emphasize prevention and treatment if it's going to combat drug and alcohol problems, especially among youth.

An American Heart Association representative said about 31 percent of those under 18 smoke cigarettes in New Hampshire.

John Bunker, president of New Futures, a group which promotes strategies to reduce alcohol, tobacco and other drug problems in New Hampshire, said 40 percent of high school seniors in the state report episodes of binge drinking.

"We need to make an investment now so we don't have to make an investment later," Bunker said.

Sen. Burt Cohen, D-New Castle, pointed to the problem of dedicated funds being siphoned off into other areas of the state budget.

Regarding House Bill 760, Cohen said it is entirely appropriate that the dollars be dedicated to health care.

State Rep. Jeff Gilbert, R-North Hampton, disagreed and said that the $46 million the state receives from the federal government in its tobacco settlement is used for health care.

Talking about the governor's proposed cut in provider payment, Johnson said the governor had his bite at the apple in coming up with a spending plan. In turn, both houses of the Legislature will have theirs, before the three bodies come together and hammer out a spending plan.

The meeting, at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, was presented by the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance and moderated by Sam Mekrut, the Alliance's executive director.

Five state legislators participated in the event: Sen. Russell Prescott, R-Kingston; Sen. Burt Cohen, D-New Castle; Rep. Jeff Gilbert, R-North Hampton; Rep. Rogers Johnson, R-Stratham; and Rep. Kurt Roessner, R-Exeter.

The event was sponsored by Exeter Hospital, Lamprey Health Care, the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance, SeaCare Health Services and Southern New Hampshire Area Health Education Center.