Largely Through Medicaid Expansion, New Hampshire Has Become a National Leader in Providing Addiction Treatment
In New Hampshire, Medicaid provides health care for more than 180,000 kids, seniors, people with disabilities, and families. It covers routine preventive care, treatment for chronic conditions, and many other health care services—including medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. Medicaid coverage also helps unemployed individuals access the care that they need to get healthy and start a new job.
Cuts to Medicaid would be particularly detrimental to New Hampshire, in part because these cuts could automatically end Medicaid Expansion under current state law. Medicaid Expansion currently covers more than 60,000 Granite Staters, and new data show that the vast majority of Granite Staters who receive opioid addiction treatment through Medicaid are covered because of Medicaid Expansion.
In the analysis below, the Joint Economic Committee – Minority details the importance of Medicaid for Granite Staters’ overall health, Medicaid’s role in fighting the opioid epidemic, and that Medicaid access can help Granite Staters join the workforce.
Medicaid covers more than 180,000 Granite Staters
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More than 180,000 people in New Hampshire get their health coverage through Medicaid.
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Of those enrollees, nearly 90,000 are children, over 15,000 are people with disabilities, and nearly 10,000 are seniors.
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In the Granite State, Medicaid covers 5 in every 8 nursing home residents, 1 in every 4 people with disabilities, and 1 in every 4 children.
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22% of all births in New Hampshire are covered by Medicaid – an important tool to help address the serious maternal health care challenges in the state.
Largely through Medicaid Expansion, New Hampshire has led the nation in providing addiction treatment
- New data shared with the Joint Economic Committee show that as of 2022, nearly 10,000 Granite Staters covered by Medicaid receive medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder—the gold standard for addiction care . Th ese medications include methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. i
- Of this group, more than 7,600 were covered through Medicaid Expansion, which underscores the vital role that Medicaid Expansion plays in addiction treatment.
- New Hampshire has been a national leader in ensuring that Medicaid recipients who have opioid use disorder are actually prescribed evidence-based addiction treatment.
- New data show that in 2022, 82% of Medicaid enrollees in New Hampshire with opioid use disorder were receiving medication-assisted treatment, the second-highest rate in the country. 2021 data from the Department of Health and Human Services show similarly high treatment rates in New Hampshire.
Access to Medicaid helps people get jobs
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Evidence shows that Medicaid Expansion has helped people get or look for work, with particular benefits for people with disabilities.
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A New England-based study found that Medicaid enrollees who received buprenorphine (a form of medication-assisted treatment) were more likely to become employed, had shorter job searches, and earned more than those not initially receiving treatment. Other studies have found similar economic and health benefits tied to access to addiction treatment.
Cuts to Medicaid would jeopardize Granite Staters’ access to health care and halt progress in fighting the opioid epidemic
- Cuts to Medicaid would increase the number of uninsured people in New Hampshire; these individuals could then face exorbitant health care costs or have to forego getting critical health care all together
- If Medicaid cuts trigger New Hampshire’s state law to automatically end Medicaid Expansion, more than 60,000 people currently insured through the expansion would lose their health insurance.
- After New Hampshire enacted Medicaid Expansion, the state’s uninsured rate fell from 13% in 2013 to just 4.7% in 2023.
- Medicaid cuts would halt key progress that New Hampshire has made in combating the opioid epidemic, because many Granite Staters would no longer have coverage for medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder.
- Health insurance is key to accessing these addiction treatments, as steep medication costs can make these highly effective treatments unaffordable and inaccessible for uninsured people.
i These figures come from an analysis done by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) and Acumen LLC in 2024 using Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) data submitted by states for fiscal year 2022. The analysis includes the number of beneficiaries with opioid use disorder between ages 18-64 who were ever enrolled as a full-benefit, non-dually eligible Medicaid beneficiary in fiscal year 2022, and also those made newly eligible for Medicaid by the Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) who had at least one claim for methadone, buprenorphine, or extended-release injectable naltrexone. Illinois and New York were excluded from the ranking due to data limitations. This analysis is covered in part in this January 2025 MACPAC presentation titled “Utilization of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) in Medicaid”.