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The public health emergency has ended. Here’s what is changing for Granite Staters and hospitals.
Some of the government’s biggest pandemic protections ended months or longer ago. Those include the December 2021 termination of temporary changes to the child tax credit and February’s end of increased food stamp assistance, protections that experts said led to a drop in child poverty. Before that, the government eliminated expanded unemployment benefits, and in […]
Bill would add telehealth services for inmates
When inmates need specialized treatment for complex mental health needs like gender dysphoria and delusional disorders or forensic risk evaluations, the choices are often limited and expensive: transport an inmate out of state to a specialist or bring the specialist to New Hampshire. Those hurdles would be eliminated by a bill that would allow the […]
No brass knuckles allowed: Senate committee balks at lifting ban on blackjacks, other weapons
Get caught in New Hampshire with brass knuckles, a blackjack club, or slung shot and you could face misdemeanor charges. The police can also take them. Despite efforts of largely House Republicans, that looks unlikely to change. In a 4-1 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee is recommending the full Senate kill House Bill 31, which […]
They’re raising other people’s kids. They may finally be eligible for assistance.
David and Tina Miller were empty nesters with plans to retire and travel when they took in their son’s girlfriend’s niece and two nephews, none of whom they’d met. They knew only that the kids, all under 12, were living in relatives’ homes where drugs and needles were more consistent than heat, food, and running […]
Attendance matters in the House this session. Have some voters ‘lost their voice’?
When Rep. Benjamin Bartlett, a Nottingham Republican, stepped down last week, margins in the House got even tighter: 200 Republicans to 196 Democrats. With the House so closely divided, attendance this session has often played a major role in the fate of legislation. An attempted repeal of the state’s abortion ban failed in a tie. […]
Workforce shortages, and their causes and effects, highlighted during Senate budget hearing
Two years ago, the public found much to criticize in the state budget. During a nine-hour public hearing in May 2021, the Senate Finance Committee heard a great deal about the budget’s abortion ban, restriction on teaching “divisive concepts,” and the elimination of Medicaid dental benefits. If this year’s public hearing is an indication of […]
DHHS seeks additional money for aging and disability services
It’s uncertain whether ServiceLink, the state’s overwhelmed one-stop resource center for aging and disability services, will get the nearly $3 million annual increase proposed in a bipartisan Senate bill. In the meantime, the Department of Health and Human Services is asking the Executive Council to invest an additional $273,000 in federal and state money in […]
Report targets Anthem for $300 million in unpaid claims, weekslong delays
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the state’s largest insurance company, owes the state’s hospitals nearly $300 million in unpaid claims, according to a report released Wednesday by the New Hampshire Hospital Association. It said Anthem has not followed through on promises made in 2021 to improve its handling of claims. The report also alleges […]
Court: Hotels ‘damaged’ by pandemic shutdowns don’t qualify for tax relief
Nine New Hampshire hospitality businesses have lost an argument that their forced closures during the start of the pandemic warrant property tax relief. In an opinion released Tuesday, the state Supreme Court rejected their claim that the pandemic was a “natural disaster” that “damaged” their businesses, elements required for property tax abatement in New Hampshire. […]
Affordable housing crisis taking a growing toll on state’s older residents
Like those before her, the woman came to the Cross Roads House homeless shelter in Portsmouth in crisis. She’d lost her car, which she’d been living in for four years, in a fire. She’d also recently lost her son. Unlike most at the shelter, the woman was in her 80s. Five years ago, people over […]
How a golf lover’s $3.8 million gift to Dartmouth turned into a yearslong legal dispute
Several years before his death in 2002, at age 88, Robert T. Keeler drew up a will to make his intentions clear. His wife and family were his primary beneficiaries. Also on the list were his secretary and housekeeper, a church, seminary, and medical center, and Dartmouth College, his alma mater. Keeler didn’t name a […]
As Senate defeats abortion bills, provider says federal rulings won’t stop its medication abortions
Last month, Republicans helped pass two bills in the House expanding abortion rights. Thursday, Senate Republicans defeated them. The vote came as federal judges moved late Wednesday to restrict access to mifepristone, a drug used for more than half of abortions nationally. House Bill 224 would have eliminated criminal and civil penalties for violating the […]