Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Healthcare Medicare For All topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
New Hampshire committee hears hours of testimony as Medicare for All backers press case
Summary
Supporters, including nurses, physicians and residents, told the State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee the U.S. health system is unaffordable and causing avoidable deaths; sponsors urged the state's federal delegation to back Medicare for All as a national priority.
Representative Lamontang opened the hearing on HCR12 by urging the committee to press New Hampshire’s federal delegation to back Medicare for All, calling U.S. health care “the only developed-country outlier” that spends more for worse outcomes. She told members she introduced the concurrent resolution after conversations with constituents and health workers and framed the measure as a statement urging Congress to change federal policy.
The prime sponsor said a consolidated, government-administered insurance pool would reduce administrative overhead and bargaining inefficiencies she blamed for high costs. “We are the only country in the world that does not guarantee health care for all its people,” she said in testimony repeated by several witnesses.
Nurses and physicians from around the state gave personal and clinical examples to the committee. Representative Paige Boschman, a maternal-child nurse, described rural labor-and-delivery closures and patients turned away from care for treatable conditions; Dr. James Fischer, a retired primary-care physician, described how administrative complexity and rising technology costs pushed many practices to sell to hospital systems and contributed to consolidation and higher prices. Multiple speakers pointed to studies and federal data suggesting administrative waste and hospital pricing as drivers of America’s outsized health spending.
Advocates emphasized the human consequences of coverage gaps. Testimony cited national research estimating tens of thousands of annual deaths attributable to lack of insurance and described local cases of medical debt and delayed care. Witnesses urged the Legislature to signal support so that New Hampshire’s congressional delegation would place the issue on the national agenda.
Opponents and questions from some members focused on trade-offs: whether a single federal program could preserve delivery flexibility, whether a national plan would expose care to political budget cycles, and how reimbursement changes could affect provider solvency. A number of committee members urged a careful process of federal deliberation rather than immediate statutory design.
The committee did not vote on HCR12; sponsors and advocates said the resolution’s intent is to register state-level support and pressure Congress to take up comprehensive federal reform. The record, the prime sponsor said, will be shared with the state’s federal delegation for consideration.
Ending: The hearing closed after full-day testimony. The next procedural steps will depend on whether the committee chooses to move the resolution forward with a formal recommendation to the House.
