WEST LEBANON — When Maggie Hassan was governor, she was fond of telling people “no one does democracy as good as we do it in New Hampshire,” pointing to the willingness of Granite State lawmakers from opposing sides to work together to solve problems.
As the state’s junior U.S. senator now seeking her second term, Hassan is again touting her cross-aisle credentials at a time of hyperpartisanship among lawmakers and the paralysis it causes in Washington.
“There is common ground among Democrats and Republicans, and that’s because there’s common ground among Americans,” she said, striking a hopeful note. “We have to continue to intentionally work to find that common ground to ignore the polarization and the partisanship wherever we can.”
As Hassan sees it, bipartisanship is not a dirty hyphenate.
“I am proud that I was named the most bipartisan senator by the Lugar Center,” Hassan said in a meeting with Valley News staff, referring to her No. 1 ranking atop the group’s “Bipartisan Index” measuring which senators are most willing to collaborate with members of the other party. “I’ve even found common ground with (Kentucky Republican U.S. Sen.) Rand Paul on issues of fiscal responsibility.”
Hassan, who boasts she secured a Republican co-sponsor for all 48 bills introduced last year and shows an ease with the details on a wide range of legislation, often prefaces her responses to questions with a desire to “take a step back” to tick off her accomplishments.
For example, when asked about how she would tackle the problem of health care costs, Hassan — a former hospital attorney and member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee — points with pride to the “no surprise medical bill” legislation she crafted with conservative Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy that protects patients from being forced to pay such things as out-of-network costs for emergency services and other treatments.
Hassan said she also advocated for the Affordable Medications Act, which proposed empowering Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. The negotiating power eventually passed in August as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
That new power will “save hundreds of billions of dollars over the years, reduce the deficit and shore up Medicare’s finances,” she said.
But revealing her sometimes pro-industry leanings, Hassan, who was deputy general counsel for Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts before she went into politics, defended hospital consolidations as a good countermeasure against insurance companies because it provides hospital chains with “scale” to better bargain against insurers and has led to “efficiencies due to volume.”
(She acknowledged, however, that “antitrust experts” contend consolidation “has reduced competition among hospitals and led to high prices.”)
As for what to do next to control spiraling medical costs, Hassan offered that legislation to make telehealth more widely available in addition to “reimbursing providers for the telehealth services they provide” are “some initial thoughts.”
In New Hampshire, where Dartmouth Health is the state’s largest private employer, the most intractable economic issues of worker shortages, housing shortages and affordability and cost of living are all inextricably linked, Hassan explained.
She pointed to the critical need to increase the health care workforce by making training accessible to bring more people into the profession, especially for nurses and substance abuse treatment. She said hospitals are facing nurse shortages because they are competing with higher-paying travel nurse agencies.
“This became a big, big issue, especially during the pandemic. It’s hard to blame nurses who are doing the really hard work of working on the front lines for going and earning a whole lot more money,” Hassan said.
“There are a number of senators who are trying to look at what’s driving it and try to come up with a solution,” said Hassan, acknowledging she didn’t “have a specific one yet” but ultimately pointed toward funding to train health care workers.
One possible solution, she suggested, would be to reduce the amount of time it would require for a health care worker to have their education loans forgiven to five years from 10 years.
As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare Part D enrollees will have insulin copays capped at $35 per month beginning in January. Hassan called it a “major step forward” in controlling medical costs but she said it doesn’t go far enough and should be extended to all 37 million suffering from diabetes.
A bill to expand the $35 monthly cap was introduced by Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire’s other Democratic senator, but was blocked by Republicans.
“We’ll continue to push on it,” Hassan promised. “Prescription drug costs are a huge part of the puzzle right now.”
Hassan predicted the CHIPS and Science Act — a bill designed to increase semiconductor research and manufacturing in the U.S. that she introduced with John Thune, R-S.D., that was recently signed into law by President Joe Biden — will funnel money into the regional economy, in particular boosting institutions like Dartmouth College, and in turn attract younger workers to the tech sector in New Hampshire.
An influx of workers for manufacturing jobs, Hassan acknowledged, would quickly run into the region’s dearth of housing and high cost of living that is a drag on the Upper Valley economy. Toward that end, Hassan said, her office received help from Lebanon’s Upper Valley Business Alliance in crafting a bill to increase the availability of workforce housing.
The bill would provide federal financing mechanisms to states through grants and matching fund programs to develop affordable housing, cited as one of the chief obstacles in attracting workers.
“Among the things people tell me are most important to them are the cost of housing, the cost of child care and the cost of energy,” said Hassan, explaining that is why she supports suspending the national gas tax and provisions that give people tax credits for energy efficiency improvements to their homes.
Hassan noted she also supported the expansion of the refundable child tax credit that was part of the government’s package of COVID-19 relief programs, but failed to get an extension in the upper chamber.
“There were not enough votes in the Senate for it,” she said. “Republicans have blocked it consistently. And there are a couple members of the Democratic caucus that weren’t supportive.”
Indeed, Hassan called the refundable child tax credit “a really important measure I support and one of the reasons” she is running for reelection.
On the topic of abortion, Hassan would not detail “specifics” she would want to see in national legislation to protect a woman’s right to abortion, but regardless she sees a bigger threat that needs to be stopped.
The urgency “is on preventing a national abortion ban. That’s job No. 1 right here now,” Hassan said.
“My first priority is protecting the right we still do have after Dobbs,” she said, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, which she defined as “the broadest possible protection” in order that “woman have the freedom to make these decisions themselves.”
Hassan said she did not want to be drawn into what would happen in Congress if, as many believe, the House and perhaps the Senate will swing back into Republican control — “I’ll leave that to the pundits and prognosticators,” she said — but what happens if she is reelected her pragmatic attitude will continue.
“My focus is on how you get things done, even in a 50-50 Senate,” she said.
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.