CANAAN, NH — In Case You Missed It, the New Hampshire Bulletin highlighted Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington’s recent visit to the Mascoma Community Health Center in Canaan.

At the Mascoma Community Health Center, Cinde hosted a roundtable with health care providers about Donald Trump and Kelly Ayotte’s reckless Medicaid cuts, and how those cuts will jeopardize access to health care for the most vulnerable Granite Staters. 

On the Executive Council, Cinde brought together local, county, state, and federal officials to facilitate the Health Resources and Services Administration approval process for Mascoma and secured funding to make sure their patients got care. 

Read more below: 
 

New Hampshire Bulletin: Ayotte’s opponents on the campaign trail take aim at her Medicaid record

William Skipworth, 5/18/26

• As Gov. Kelly Ayotte seeks to fend off challengers in her reelection bid, her top Democratic challenger, Cinde Warmington, has sought to make Medicaid — and the several changes to the program Ayotte forced through the Legislature in 2025 — a key issue of the race.

• [...]

• “Gov. Kelly Ayotte has not only made these devastating cuts of her own, but she has stood silent to the cuts that the Trump administration has made,” Warmington said at a campaign event in Canaan last month, “which, by the way, we haven’t begun to see the impact of.”

• [...]

• Ayotte unveiled her spending plan in the early months of her governorship. Among the most impactful provisions were changes to Medicaid designed to save money in a tight budget year. Those changes were all approved by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed into law by Ayotte in June 2025.

• First, Ayotte proposed a premium system. Some New Hampshire Medicaid enrollees — those who earn 100% of the poverty line or more — will soon be required to pay a fee to receive coverage. In Ayotte’s original plan, that fee would have been capped at 5% of a family’s household income. This has been continually lambasted by Democrats as an “income tax on the poor.” Republicans in the Legislature ultimately amended the plan from a percentage of a household’s income to a flat fee varying by family size and income bracket.

• [...]

• Second, Ayotte proposed increasing pharmacy copays, the share of the price of prescription drugs that Medicaid enrollees are responsible for, from $1 or $2 to $4 per prescription (unless that exceeds 5% of household income).

• Warmington said that if she’s elected governor in November, reversing these changes will be “a top priority.” She promised that her budget proposal will include the reversals.

• Asked how she might accomplish the goal if one or both chambers remain in control of Republicans, Warmington cited her experience being the only Democrat on the Executive Council from 2021 to 2025.

• “I think we’re going to win across the board,” she said. “But I have a long record of knowing when to stand my ground and when to find the common ground, and I think the key to that is listening.”

• [...]

• “You actually have to speak out and say this is hurting the people of our state, and that motivates people around the state to enable them to stand up as well,” Warmington said. “All of the electeds in the state need to be hearing from the people of our state that this is unacceptable, and they’re not hearing that from the top, so there’s no leadership on that issue.”