New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) on March 27 signed a bill expanding Medicaid under a two-and-a-half-year pilot program that will let the newly eligible use federal dollars to purchase private plans. The expansion will cover roughly 50,000 low-income adults with annual incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or $15,856 a year for a single adult, according to a March 27 Associated Press article. New Hampshire is among a handful of states that have adopted a private-market approach to the Medicaid expansion. The state estimates that 12,000 adults could begin receiving coverage in about a month under an existing program to subsidize employer-based coverage, and another 38,000 individuals would receive coverage through the state’s Medicaid managed care program starting on or about July 1, the article said. The expansion is projected to cost $340 million a year when fully implemented, the AP said. (Reprinted from AIS’s Health Reform Week's e-News Alert)