Open Letter to Commerce Committee What we pay for hospital care is anyone’s guess. When the bill arrives, charges vary with that year’s employee-sponsored health insurance or whether you were laid off and uninsured. Affordability of an MRI varies by whether your “benefits” include a thousand dollar deductible or if you turned 65 yesterday. The availability of an Operating Room time for a knee replacement is not related to how disabled you might be, but whether you’re on Medicaid. Despite laws promoting transparency, hospital billing is opaque because of how …

Have you had difficulty finding care with a primary care clinician? If so, you’re not alone – it’s become increasingly difficult to establish with primary care all across the country. This summer in the Upper Valley, after a million dollar rebranding, Dartmouth Health announced it was unable to accept new patients for primary care. 98 million now Americans live in a primary care shortage area, often in rural regions. Access and continuity with high-quality primary care is the bedrock of high-functioning health care systems. Primary care teams assure immunization, screenings …

To the Editor Conservatives bemoan potential loss of solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund, while developing programs which raid the fund for profit. The nominee for the fund’s Public Trustee, Demetrios Kouzoukas refuses to relinquish his paid Board Membership of a Medicare Advantage insurance plan. Performing his mission to maximize profit for Clover Health while acting to regulate that company is patent conflict of interest. Mr. Kouzoukas states that “to my knowledge the (CMS) trustees report has not discussed topics like “overpayments” to Medicare Advantage plans…” It required a Freedom …

Unlike other New England states, New Hampshire has no game plan to access nor manage the explosion of healthcare costs. Over 20 years, the premiums for NH health insurance are consistently higher than the average for the US and other New England states. This puts considerable financial strain on the middle-income families who are already struggling to afford or find rentals and mortgages, and inflates our property taxes that fund health benefits for teachers and state employees. There is no controversy that the major reason for climbing premiums are ballooning …