Latest news with #HumanServicesandElderlyAffairsCommittee
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
House panel revives bill to give Ivermectin special status
The worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is in the rearview mirror, but a House Republican-led panel revived legislation Wednesday to allow for residents to receive without a prescription ivermectin, a controversial but very popular, anti-parasitic used by many to treat the virus. The amended language would allow doctors, advance nurse practitioners and physician assistants to issue to patients a 'standing order' that would allow them to receive ivermectin without a prescription. State Rep. Yuri Polozov, R-Hooksett, convinced his Republican colleagues on the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee to attach this proposal to a Senate passed bill (SB 119) state Medicaid officials requested to save taxpayers money by allowing clients to get the lowest-cost available medication. 'It is one of the safest medicines available so allowing physicians to do this makes sense,' Polozov said. 'I understand there are strong feelings on both sides. No one is forcing physicians or any of them to do anything they don't want to do.' But Gary Woods, D-Bow and a retired physician, said it would be unwise for lawmakers to wade into medical care decisions. 'Let's really follow the science in this situation. I understand the emotion behind it. I would like to do something that is simple,' Woods said. 'If your doctor wants to, he or she can write a prescription. We do it all the time, off label. We don't need to or should legislate that.' Several supporters charged that during COVID doctors were pressured not to give their patients ivermectin since COVID-19 vaccines got emergency approval because there were no other safe alternatives. 'Doctors will not prescribe the medicine, pharmacies will not fill the medicine and that's why this legislation is needed,' said Rep. Linda McGrath, R-Hampton, who worked for decades in the pharmacy field. In 2020, two elite journals, Lancet and the Journal for American Medicine retracted two reports critical of ivermectin and other alternative drugs over questions regarding integrity of the data. Then in August 2021, the Centers for Disease Control issued a warning about the 'alarming' increased use of ivermectin to treat the virus. The House panel approved this amendment, 10-8, with all Democrats on the panel in opposition. 'Making this the equivalent of an over-the-counter medication without the usual reviews is very unwise,' said House Democratic Floor Leader Lucy Weber of Walpole. Similar standing orders are rare Currently, the only drugs given a standing order are smoking cessation products, treatment for sexual assault and the EpiPen to treat allergic reactions such as bee stings and contraception. That's why former Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a similar bill (HB 1022) the GOP-led Legislature passed in 2022. In that veto message, Sununu wrote the others given a standing order met 'all the necessary protocols.' 'All drugs and medications should be subject to the same rigorous process if they are to be dispensed by standing order,' Sununu wrote. A few months later, the GOP-led House failed to override Sununu's veto. The same panel wasn't as accommodating to a different standing order HHS requested and the Senate endorsed. This would allow the HHS chief medical officer the power to issue a standing order for 'over-the-counter (non-legend) medications, medical supplies, or laboratory tests' given to Medicaid patients. McGrath said that it was too open-ended. 'It might save the state money but put all the burden on your neighborhood pharmacy that is overworked,' McGrath said. 'Pharmacies lose money dispensing over the counter standing order medications.' What's Next: The full House of Representatives will vote later this month on the committee recommendation. Prospects: The future may come down to whether Gov. Kelly Ayotte agrees with Sununu and blocks this legislation, should it get to her desk. klandrigan@
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
House panel endorses bills to ban medical procedures for transgender minors
Mar. 19—A key House committee endorsed two bills along party lines to prevent minors from getting hormone treatments or breast surgeries tied to their attempts to transition from one gender to another. State Rep. Lisa Mazur, R-Goffstown, said a growing number of health care providers are declining to provide these procedures because some minors later regret altering their bodies. "I know this is an emotional subject. The big question to ask is do children change their minds? If so, please pass this bill because it gives them the time they need to truly understand the long-term impacts of these medical decisions," Mazur said. State Rep. Jessica Lamontagne, D-Dover, chastised Republicans for "hypocrisy," supporting the right of parents to make decisions for their children except when it comes to treatment for transgender minors. "Most people have no regret with this treatment and feel it has changed their lives," Lamontagne said. The House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee voted by identical 10-8 margins in favor of these bills banning puberty blockers and hormone treatments (HB 377) and breast surgery for minors that is elective (HB 712). All Republicans on the committee voted for them, all House Democrats opposed them. The ban on puberty blockers would make providing that treatment a Class B felony that could carry up to a 3 1/2 —to 7-year term in state prison. Mazur convinced the committee to amend her bill to allow minors who are getting these treatments to wean off of them over up to a six-month period. Medical providers who gave minors breast surgery services under the second bill could be subject to professional discipline. The bill would permit minors to receive breast surgery to "treat malignancy, injury, infection, or malformation." State banned anti-gay conversion therapy in 2018 Rep. Gary Woods, D-Bow, a retired surgeon, said lawmakers should not interfere in the practice of medicine. "The patient, doctor and parent are involved in medical decision making," Woods said. "What we are asking is for the Legislature to not intervene in that doctor and patient relationship." Mazur said minors are too young to have these procedures. "Children will never ever be able to come back from these life-altering surgeries that remove completely healthy body parts," Mazur said. In 2024, the Republican-led Legislature passed and former Gov. Chris Sununu signed legislation that outlawed minors having surgeries that altered their sex organs. State Rep. Tim Hartnett, D-Manchester, said the legislation goes too far. "This bill isn't banning hormone treatment for everybody. It is banning it for one narrow class of people and that's discriminatory," Hartnett added. Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, said many health care providers are reluctant to counsel minors against having these procedures. That's because the Legislature in 2018 outlawed conversion therapy which is the practice of a clinician trying to encourage patients to be heterosexual, she said. What's Next: The full House of Representatives will vote on both bills early next month Prospects: Pretty decent. Conservative Republicans in the House and Senate have supported similar bills in recent years. klandrigan@
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Transgender people oppose limits on minors' access to procedures
Mar. 3—Luke Boisvert of Nashua, a 13-year-old transgender male, said a proposed ban on minors receiving hormone treatments or puberty blockers could trap him in a prepubescent life because he suffers from Turner's syndrome. "Physically I can't go through puberty without these treatments," Boisvert told the House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee Monday. "I was just a little boy who didn't know how to say I was a boy." Luke's mother, Jennifer, said lawmakers have no business adopting these mandates. "My child's health care is my child's health care. Nobody in the government has any right to legislate that," Boisvert said. Over more than seven hours of testimony, transgender youths and their supporters opposed the bills, one to block the hormone treatments for minors (HB 377), and the other (HB 712) to outlaw breast surgeries for those under 18 except to "treat malignancy, injury, infection, or malformation." The ban on puberty blockers would make providing that treatment a Class B felony that could carry up to a three and a half-to-seven-year term in state prison. Medical providers who gave minors breast surgery services under the second bill could be subject to professional discipline. Rep. Lisa Masur, R-Goffstown, said her bills would protect minors as studies have shown nearly 90% of youths who explored transition decided to remain in their biological sex. "I have spoken personally with these families who have been devastated by these treatments, parents who thought they were only doing what their children wanted only to find they later suffered greatly," Masur said. "They need time and compassionate care, not radical medical intervention." Linds Jakows, co-founder of 603 Equality, a transgender advocacy group, said both bills violate the 2018 statute that outlaws bias based on gender identity. "These bills cruelly single out this care when it is performed for the purpose of a gender transition, although non-transgender young people also sometimes need the same exact care. That's discrimination," Jakows said. Masur said it's hypocritical for the state to allow minors to have these procedures. "We don't let minors get tattoos, go to tanning salons, buy cigarettes or consume alcohol because we know they lack maturity needed to make decisions," Masur said. "Why then would we let them make irrevocable medical choices that will affect their health and happiness all of their lives?" A.J. Coletti, a member of the N.H. Youth Movement, said it took him more than two years to get the double-mastectomy top surgery last Jan. 14 at age 19. (Top surgery is a procedure that reshapes the chest for a more masculine or feminine appearance.) "Despite the popular idea that these procedures are easy to get, getting approved by insurance and scheduled for elective surgery takes a long time," Coletti said. Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, maintained the medical community refuses to take a stand against these procedures for children. "In any other area of medicine, they would go the other way on this but look around, it's scary to talk about this because, A, they will be told they hate transgender people which isn't true and, B, they are afraid of the repercussions they will face if they speak publicly about this," Layon said. Online, 2,582 people registered opposition to both bills while 197 supported them. Diana George is the mother of a 23-year-old transgender man who had breast surgery at age 16. "As a registered nurse, I know that what they prescribed was evidence-based, best-practice care that is validated by every major medical association," George said. "It's chilling to think about parents like me, who only want the best care for their teenager, being criminalized." klandrigan@
