MANCHESTER, NH — In Case You Missed It, the Union Leader highlighted Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington’s opposition to Kelly Ayotte’s new Medicaid premiums that will force Granite Staters to pay up to $270 a month to keep their health coverage. 

The new Medicaid premiums and higher prescription copays from Ayotte come on top of the sweeping health care cuts that Donald Trump made with his Big Ugly Bill. 

Read more here and below. 

Union Leader: NH Dems decry Medicaid premium increases

• Low and moderate-income families on public assistance programs eventually will have to pay up to $270 monthly for their health insurance premiums, a critical move that state budget writers took in June 2025 to balance their two-year state budget.

• State Democratic leaders, including gubernatorial nominee-to-be Cinde Warmington of Concord, pounced Wednesday on the target date of July 1 in the state budget to make these premium changes. 

• “Our most vulnerable families will feel the pain and face the increased prices of Kelly Ayotte’s and Donald Trump’s reckless Medicaid cuts. Families that can no longer afford health coverage will be left entirely without health care, and providers will find it harder than ever to continue providing care as they struggle to keep their doors open,” Warmington said in a statement.

• “Granite Staters deserve a governor who is committed to making health care more accessible and more affordable, and I’ll reverse these costly premiums when I get to the corner office.” 

• But the Ayotte administration said the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is still awaiting approval from the Trump administration to adopt the premium hikes. 

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• Once the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gives New Hampshire its requested waiver, the state budget calls for these recipients on the Medicaid program to pay monthly premiums for health care coverage:

• Children’s Health Insurance Program: Families with children in CHIP would pay if they made at least 255% of the federal poverty level, which is roughly $72,500 a year. They will pay a flat monthly fee based on family size from $190 a month for a family of one to $270 a month for a family of four. 

• Granite Advantage: The premium would be charged to low-income adults in the Medicaid expansion program who made at least 100% of the federal poverty level, which for a single person is about $16,000 annually. This flat premium will range from $60 for a single adult to $100 a month for that adult in a family of four or more.

• All other clients in Granite Advantage who make less than the federal poverty level would see copayments for prescription drugs rise from $1 or $2 to $4 for each medication.

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