Ayotte 'Outraged' By Vote To Send Mental Health Insurance For Children To Study; Won't Drop Gas Tax

By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH

CONCORD, NH — Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte lashed out at a vote by a House committee Wednesday to send to interim study a bill that she said would allow insurance companies to shirk their responsibility to cover children's mental health needs.

She also said she is not willing to drop the state gas tax at this point but would consider it as time goes on with high prices at the gas pumps.

She said she feels comfortable that the state should continue to study the concept of "campus carry" of firearms and "get it right" rather than passing a current bill.

The focus of her press conference Wednesday was Senate Bill 498, which would have covered about 160,000 children or 10 percent in the state, the majority of which are covered by Anthem.

It was passed on a bipartisan overwhelming vote out of the Senate.

Meeting with reporters after the Executive Council meeting, Ayotte started by saying the matter is far from over and called the 14-4 vote out of House Commerce "appalling."

"It's unbelievable to me that they think it is more important to support the insurance companies than it is to support the children of this state when it comes to a critical issue like mental health. So to me this is an issue that we need to continue to fight on, and I plan to as governor. Because I was outraged when I heard about the committee vote today.

"I think this is really wrong because Anthem and other insurance companies should be covering the support and treatment of mental health issues. I was incredibly flabbergasted and disappointed by the House vote on this and I believe that we should be covering mental health for children. And this is not the first time this issue has been raised. This issue has been pending around here for several years, what I am told.

"Insurers like Anthem keep claiming that they are negotiating in good faith but clearly they are stalling because they don't want to cover mental health coverage for children. It's wrong. So we are going to continue to push this even though the committee voted it down. We are not going to let up on this. We need to do the right thing and the fact that insurance companies continue to delay this, I don't know why any House member would listen to what they say about this given that this is not the first time they have heard this issue and no result has happened. And children are the ones that are being harmed here."

She said she has been working on this issue behind the scenes. And she said this is not a tax issue but a "coverage issue."
The bill's prime sponsor is Sen. Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead.

If you are a child who has Medicaid you are covered but those who are receiving private insurance are not currently. Ayotte said this could lead to children becoming more sick than they need to be and requiring more institutional help.

"This is about keeping children with their families," she said.

According to the bill it "establishes the New Hampshire children's behavioral health association for the purpose of collecting assessments to fund payments to care management entities for the provision of childhood behavioral health services. The association is authorized to collect assessments from insurance carriers, stop loss carriers, and third-party administrators for fully insured and self-funded health plans. The assessment base would include covered lives in the state employee health plan, as well as pooled risk management programs under RSA 5-b. The funds provided for this purpose would be deposited in a dedicated fund administered by the insurance commissioner."

She said that DJ Bettencourt, the state insurance commissioner, has been working to try to come to an agreement with the insurance companies and they have refused.

The Insurance Department states that the assessment amount is indeterminable, as it is based primarily on an estimate of the cost of reimbursing care management entities for the provision of childhood behavioral health services they provide to assessable lives.

The NHID estimates the administrative costs would be approximately $175,000 and would likely increase with inflation.

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.