WMUR – June 11, 2025
By ADAM SEXTON, Political Director
CONCORD, N.H. — Advocates in Concord were making the case to lawmakers Wednesday to protect New Hampshire’s mental health system as the state budget process entered its final stages. Mental health advocates said they want to close what they say is an unfair gap in coverage for services. Cheryl Guerin, of Enfield, was at the State House to share her family’s story. A few years ago, her son faced down a life-threatening mental health crisis.
“My son, when he was younger, was always pretty anxious – separation anxiety,” Guerin said. “At age 10, he started running from the school and running from the aftercare program. Eventually, he struggled to leave our house.”
Guerin said her son ultimately became eligible for wraparound services, but not until his condition became much worse. “We experienced emergency room boarding and truancy and a Hampstead Hospital stay,” she said. “In order to get the services of the Fast Forward program, in particular, my son’s condition had to worsen to the point where he was eligible for state care.” Advocates have been fighting to change the system. They said even children whose families have private health insurance do not have coverage for wraparound mental health services.
“The state of New Hampshire has paid about $2 million a year to cover those privately insured kids, and there is a perverse financial incentive that exists for private insurance carriers to not necessarily cover these services, because once a child reaches a point of acuity where they’ve been hospitalized, they shift from private insurance into the state’s Medicaid program,” said Michele Merritt, president of the advocacy organization New Futures. A bill aimed at addressing that issue is currently tabled by the Senate and opposed by insurers as a new tax. More broadly, as the state budget debate enters its final weeks, mental health advocates are warning against cuts, saying they threaten progress made over the past decade. “A lot of the ground we have gained, we stand to lose,” said Susan Stearns, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-New Hampshire.