Ayotte Visit Focuses on Obamacare

News Article

By Damien Fisher

CLAREMONT - New Hampshire and the rest of the country need a second take on the Affordable Care Act, said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire.

"We need a do over," Ayotte said Wednesday at a town hall meeting held at the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center. "This has been a real mess."

Ayotte presented herself as a budget hawk during her town hall meeting held with members of the public in Claremont. After taking numerous questions about the federal Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, Ayotte said the roll out of the federal law mandating health insurance purchases through a specialized state health care exchange has been problematic.

"I don't want people in New Hampshire to suffer because of the way the law is being implemented," she said.

Claremont's Valley Regional Hospital is being excluded from the health care exchange by the sole insurance company participating in the marketplace, Anthem; Ayotte wants to fix this by encouraging more competition in the marketplace.

"I want a more competition based, choice based system," Ayotte said.

Ayotte said there needs to be more insurance companies involved in the federal exchange to offer more options to people wanting to buy health care insurance. This can be achieved both at the state and federal level, changing laws to allow for more competition.

Ayotte said she is troubled by President Barack Obama's repeated maneuvers to exempt businesses from the Affordable Care Act. At the same time, individuals must purchase insurance through the exchanges, or face fines and penalties.

"I believe everyone should get an exemption," she said.

Ayotte voted to repeal the health care law, and wants to see reforms to ease the burden on individuals.

The exclusion of Valley Regional Hospital was the biggest issue bought up at the meeting. Anthem is the only insurance company currently participating in the New Hampshire health care exchange, where uninsured people are required to shop for health plans. The Anthem coverage excludes Valley Regional and several other hospitals from the insurance plans.

Valley Regional leaders reached out to state legislators about the insurance situation, which Valley Regional has estimated will cost the hospital $450,000 a year. Anyone with existing insurance can still go to Valley Regional, but new plans sold through the exchange do not allow people to go to Sullivan County's only hospital.

The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee is meeting at the statehouse in Concord today to discuss a joint resolution from New Hampshire House members urging the insurance company to extend it's Affordable Care Act insurance plans to include at least one hospital in each county. This could bring Valley Regional into the health care exchange system offered by Anthem.

Ayotte plans to hold public meetings in every county in the state as often as she can. She is also worried about the budget deficit and a looming fiscal crisis over entitlements. She wants to see the budget brought in and capped, at the same time reducing spending, or keeping spending at historic levels as opposed to increasing levels of funding.

She also wants to see the country halt spending, and encourage job growth. She does not want to see increases to the minimum wage imposed by Washington. Ayotte said that could lead to lost jobs.

"The last thing we need right now is to lose job opportunities," she said.

Finally, Ayotte thinks there are ways to encourage job growth and bring about the economy that will allow people to provide for themselves.
"We should be working on creating the environment to create good jobs," she said.

Source