Healthcare

Dr. Anna Konopka, a physician in New London, surrendered her medical license in October to settle allegations from the New Hampshire Board of Medicine. Months later, she’s still fighting to reopen her doors.

As her battle plays out in the courts, many of her patients are struggling to find a new primary care doctor. Many of them are low income and reliant on pain medication day-to-day.

With uncertainty over the Affordable Care Act's future, and Congressional inaction on an alternative, some lawmakers in D.C. and New Hampshire are re-branding an old idea: government-financed universal healthcare.  We look at the pros and cons from a medical and budgetary perspective.

GUESTS:

In the past few months, the Manchester VA Medical Center met with scandal, disaster, and a full helping of public outcry. Today on Word of Mouth, NHPR's Peter Biello looks back on the summer's news and tells the story of one woman's effort to improve hospital facilities for survivors of military sexual trauma. 

Dr. Anna Konopka’s medical office sits just across the driveway from her house, tucked along the shore of Pleasant Lake in New London. There’s no cell service, no wifi. Her phone rings off the hook.

At 85, she’s set to close her practice Friday, but the move is not voluntary. She says she’s being forced to shut down by a system that no longer values the type of patient-centered medicine that she practices.  

The New Hampshire Board of Medicine has a different take. They’re challenging her medical decision-making and other fundamental aspects of her work.

After the Graham-Cassidy Bill proposed by Republicans -- their latest Repeal and Replace effort -- failed to garner enough votes recently, patients, healthcare providers, and insurers still face plenty of uncertainty before open enrollment begins November 1. Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders's single-payer proposal continues to gain fans. We'll get the latest on how national politics is shaping the health care debate across the country.  

GUEST:

• Julie Rovner - Chief Washington Correspondent for Kaiser Health News. She has written extensively about the politics surrounding health insurance for KHN's Repeal & Replace Watch. Rovner also hosts the What the Health? podcast. 

The Boston Globe published revelations on Saturday of dangerous delays in care and unsanitary conditions at the Manchester VA Medical Center.

Recently, VA Secretary David Shulkin told a Senate Committee that an important program designed to help veterans get care at private hospitals was running out of money sooner than expected. He was talking about the Veterans Choice program.

Meanwhile, here in New Hampshire, the program has slowly required more and more administrative help from employees at the Manchester VA. Assistant Director of the medical center, Kevin Forest, recently said as much to the State Veterans Advisory Committee.

Governor Sununu and other New Hampshire lawmakers announced their opposition to the proposed healthcare bill from the U.S. Senate.  "Keno-garten" comes to the Granite State, but critics worry the new funding from the electronic gambling game Keno won't be enough for widespread full-day kindergarten programs. And Mayor Ted Gatsas of Manchester announces his re-election campaign, amongst some controversy. 

An assessment of the quality of care provided to military veterans at the VA hospital in White River Junction, Vermont, has found that management and staff failed on numerous occasions to follow best practices to keep patients safe.

  New Hampshire Congresswoman Annie Kuster is calling on Republican House leaders to withdraw their health care reform bill.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would increase the number of people without insurance by 14 million in the first year, and 24 million by 2026.

Speaking to NHPR's Morning Edition, Kuster said she's not surprised White House officials are disputing the figures released Monday.

The opioid epidemic profoundly affects families, communities, law enforcement and puts doctors and hospital staff on the front lines of addiction. Today, a physician and ethicist makes a radical suggestion - let addicts shoot up in the hospital.

Then, for most people who sustain traumatic injuries from bullets or car crashes death occurs within an hour. Now, what seems like a miracle cure is freighted with questions of consent, ethics and racism in a country with a sordid history of medical experiments on African Americans.

As the New Hampshire legislature debates whether to extend expanded Medicaid, house lawmakers continue to question whether the state will get a return on its investment. After two days of work sessions, the House Finance Committee heard its final testimony Wednesday before its scheduled to vote.

For the first time in its 100 year history, Planned Parenthood has endorsed a candidate in a presidential primary: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton officially accepted the endorsement yesterday afternoon in Manchester. NHPR’s Natasha Haverty reports.

As another health insurance enrollment period comes to end, the conversation continues about whether or not the affordable care act is working for individuals and employers in the state. We take stock of who's getting insured, what's on the horizon for Medicaid expansion, and whether the economics of the law are bringing down costs as intended. 

GUESTS:   

Among the choices for the 2015 edition of the Best American Poetry, a poem by Yi-Fen Chou.  The problem? The author was actually a white guy using a made-up name. Today, white privilege in the poetry world, and the editor who defended his use of racial nepotism. Then, since airline de-regulation in the 1970s, legroom and seat width have measurably decreased, leading to cramped misery in economy-class cabins. But is it a human rights issue? One organization says yes. 

Less Medicine, More Health. That’s the contradictory-sounding title of a new book by Dartmouth researcher and Doctor Gilbert Welch. It’s a challenge to the conventional wisdom among patients and providers that more testing and more treatment is always better.  Welch says in some cases, you can have too much health care – and can even be harmed by it.

New Hampshire’s Health Protection Program faces sunset in twenty sixteen unless the legislature votes to extend it. We’ll find out more. Then later – a new, national report ranks colleges based on the economic value of their degrees and a New Hampshire Community college tops the list.

Last April, the news broke that 40 veterans had died while waiting for medical care from a VA Hospital in Arizona. That provoked a national outcry at long wait times for sick vets.

Congress passed a $16.3 billion law to overhaul the Veterans Affairs Administration, and a crucial aspect of that law is now unfolding in New Hampshire. The idea is for the VA to pay for medical treatment outside the VA system.

Saturday marked the beginning of the second round of open enrollment for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. And in New Hampshire that means a lot more options this time around for the nearly 100,000 residents without insurance.

Here's the problem: five insurers offering forty plans, each with varying premiums, deductibles, coinsurance, and co-pays. Who could blame you for being confused?

When her son came home from school one day last March, Jessica Giberson was disturbed. She noticed her son’s genitals were bruised and swollen. Giberson’s son is developmentally delayed.  

"He is nine years old. He’s more like a three year old in a nine year old’s body," says Giberson.

Giberson says she complained to the Crotched Mountain Foundation School, but that nothing ever came of it. Then in June, she got a call from the school.

One of the new insurers set to begin offering plans on New Hampshire’s health care exchange next year announced its rates Thursday.

Maine Community Health Options is one of five insurance companies offering plans in 2015.

The non-profit, member-run co-op, was the first to announce its rates, saying it will offer ten different plans and will include all of the state’s 26 hospitals in its provider network.

Dr. John Yindra, the company’s Chief Medical Officer, says people with chronic conditions will be able to choose from a range of plans, and costs should be low.

Yusuf Valera resents that he has to buy health insurance. He’s never had it, and he says he doesn’t want it now.

"I don’t have much of a choice. If I don’t do it, then they’re going to take money out of my taxes anyway," Valera says.

The irony is Valera stands to gain - in a big way - from the Affordable Care Act. Yet like most New Hampshire residents, he simply doesn't like the law.

State health officials say a New Hampshire resident has died from Eastern Equine Encephalitis, or EEE.

The Manchester resident was likely exposed to EEE in August, then passed away in September. This is the second EEE-related death and the third human case of EEE this year.

The virus spreads from birds to humans through mosquito bites. Symptoms come on like the flu, then in some people lead to encephalitis, or severe brain swelling.