Filed under: Health
After budget negotiations between the House and Senate broke down last week, Gov. Lynch and the Executive Council called lawmakers back to Concord for a special session on June 9. House and Senate leaders Terie Norelli and Sylvia Larsen are scheduled to release a bill the afternoon of June 7 that will get a public hearing June 8 and go to the House and Senate for debate on June 9.
They didn’t start from scratch in writing this bill. It includes $270 million in budget cuts and adjustments that were already agreed to by a joint House-Senate conference committee in recent weeks.
That committee walked away from budget talks, however, over the remaining $30 million and the issue of expanded gambling.
Continue June 8, 2010
Demand is up for mental health services in New Hampshire, but resources to provide them are dwindling. And more are on the chopping block, including the Anna Philbrook Center, the state’s facility for treating children and adolescents with severe mental health needs.
Children would still be treated, but at the main wing of the New Hampshire Hospital, instead. Fourteen adult beds would be eliminated to make room for the kids. It is not clear at this point how the state’s obligation to educate the children would be met or who exactly would pick up that bill.
Continue May 3, 2010
March 25 this year marks Crossover, the deadline for the N.H. House and Senate to vote on all bills that originated in those respective chambers.
Bills must pass the chamber in which they’re introduced before “crossing over” to the opposite chamber. Legislation that’s still alive after Crossover receives a second public hearing and potential floor debate before the second deadline in mid-May.
And some notable legislation is either still up for its first vote, or on its way to the other side.
Continue March 13, 2010
Unused prescription drugs could soon be donated to some uninsured or underinsured patients in New Hampshire. The Board of Pharmacy is working with three test sites in Hanover, Rochester and Exeter to roll out the Unused Prescription Drug Program created by the Legislature in 2006.
It’s a social cause that could save the state a lot of money, too.
Continue February 19, 2010
Healthcare isn’t just about costs and insurance.
A sunset is scheduled for the quality assurance group overseeing New Hampshire’s hospitals, but House Bill 1169 would keep it working. And a review of all suicides in New Hampshire—nearly eight for every one homicide—may be created with House Bill 1384. Studying the reasons people take their own lives can lead to surprising insights, and could help prevent more suicides in the future.
Public hearings on both bills will be held in early February.
Continue January 25, 2010
With gay marriage now legal, a Constitutional debate gets underway. Plus: General John Stark weighs in on the helmet law, immunization exemptions may not just be for the religious anymore, and one former business owner sparks legislation to end unemployment taxes for the self-employed. It’s all in a week’s work, and it will wrap up with Gov. Lynch’s State of the State address on Jan. 21.
Continue January 15, 2010
Gov. John Lynch has—for now, at least—snuffed out New Hampshire’s medical marijuana bill. Lynch had remained tight-lipped about his stance on the legislation’s latest version until Friday morning, when he vetoed House Bill 648 just hours after it landed on his desk. It will now go back to the House and Senate, where a two-thirds majority could override the veto.
Continue July 16, 2009
New Hampshire is one step closer to its budget for the next two years, although it still may be a long way off.
Continue June 23, 2009
