Medicaid expansion helps good people

To the editor:

I have been a primary care doctor in the Merrimack Valley for more than 30 years, and currently also serve as chief medical officer at Parkland Medical Center. In the last two years, I’ve seen remarkable benefits of the NH Health Protection Program, and I’d like to impress upon our elected officials in Concord the value of continuing this important program.

New Hampshire residents pride themselves on our traditions of individual responsibility and hard work. We value diligence, hard work, thrift, self-reliance and independence. Many of my patients are self-employed, the kind of ambitious, brave entrepreneurs on which our state economy depends. But in my work I often see how untimely and unexpected illness can destroy the most carefully planned lives.

One of my patients is a 56-year-old homemaker. When her husband lost his job, she could not afford insulin and spent three days in the hospital with sugar over 400. Then she discovered the Health Protection Program, and now she can be back home, back on insulin, back managing her family.

My patients on the NH Health Protection Program don’t choose to be sick, don’t choose to be unemployed, and don’t have a deficient work ethic. They are not taking advantage of the system. They are good people – my neighbors and yours – who have fallen on hard times. The Health Protection Program is the only health insurance resource available to them, and we must protect this valuable, life-saving program. 

Edward L. Yourtee, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Parkland Medical Center, Derry