Today I write as a State Rep...

She was working in her yard while her dogs played nearby, she wasn’t on our walk list but we wanted to meet and speak with as many neighbors as possible, so we stopped in.

The dogs raced back and forth, excited to have the attention, while the woman put aside her rake and came over to talk. She was a really, really nice lady - and I will never forget her.

We told her we were running for State Reps in our ward, and we were hoping to speak with voters about what they felt was important and she stopped us right there. She said she didn’t think she’d be in Nashua in November, the house was almost sold and she’d be moving in with family in another town as soon as possible. You see, she said - her husband had died, and because of that they had spent every penny on his last illness, she had no home, no money, and plenty of bills.

He’d never had insurance through work, had been laid off, they couldn’t afford private insurance and no one would insure him once they knew he was sick, and he wasn’t old enough for Medicare. But what was worse... now that he had all that time on his hands, he watched news all day long, and all day long he kept hearing about how people who wanted “free stuff” like insurance were deadbeats... He believed it, he believed what they told him over and over, hour after hour. 

He wasn’t going to be one of those deadbeats, and now? 

Now, she said, he was just plain dead.

Expanded Medicaid would have made it possible for his illness to have been caught earlier and treated, and if nothing could have been done to save him - his wife wouldn’t have lost everything and had to leave a community she loved. 

We had an opportunity two years ago to start looking at solutions the ACA was offering NH. We had another one again November 21st, an opportunity to do something good for our neighbors, something great for NH. We had an opportunity, and yesterday’s opportunity was lost too.

Today I’m writing this as a State Rep - 

NH has a problem we can fix - and we were almost there. 

We can work together, but only if we leave political ideology and out of state political organizations where they belong... outside.

Before you write a comment, please take a minute to read just how much good this would do for all of us in NH.

NHFPI - Extending Medicaid: A Resource Page