A proposal to change the way intensive behavioral healthcare for children with private insurance is paid for appears to be dead in the New Hampshire Legislature.
A committee composed of lawmakers from both the New Hampshire House and Senate met briefly Tuesday to see if they could find agreement on House Bill 1323, but adjourned without setting up a follow up meeting, essentially ending the measure’s chances this year.
The bill included a proposal that easily cleared the Senate earlier this year that would have added an assessment — what some opponents called a “tax” — on private health insurers to help pay for children enrolled in the FAST Forward program, which otherwise falls on the state to cover.
Private insurance does cover clinical care for children in crisis, but there is no direct funding mechanism for some of the “wraparound” services provided by FAST Forward, which can include dedicated case managers for families.
The New Hampshire House voted down the Senate’s proposal earlier this month with bipartisan support, citing concerns about costs being passed onto ratepayers. That opposition came despite vocal lobbying by Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who accused private health insurers of letting taxpayers foot the bill for services they should be providing.
The Senate used a procedural move to keep the measure alive, but House Republicans showed no signs of yielding this week, leading to the collapse of any resolution.
Rep. John Hunt, who chairs the House Commerce Committee, has pledged to continue meeting with stakeholders to try and hammer out a fix, with a self-imposed deadline of September 1.
“I guarantee you we’ll get it done,” Hunt said earlier this month.
A bipartisan group of senators, though, said that the health insurance companies have been delaying any reforms on coverage for years.
“There are solutions that are out there,” said Sen. Sue Prentiss, a Democrat from Lebanon. “These companies just got to get it together and they got to do it.”
