Starting Jan. 1, New Hampshire’s Medicaid program will stop covering GLP-1 drugs — Wegovy, Zepbound, and others — for weight loss.

“We looked at the way that the state was supporting coverage for GLP-1 medicines and found that this was a fairly significant cost driver,” Gov. Kelly Ayotte told reporters on Wednesday. “And so we looked at the medically necessary reasons for it in terms of those who had pre-existing conditions and made the decision working with Health and Human Services to come up with a modified policy that will still allow medications in those circumstances, but then really make sure it is cost sustainable going forward.”

The Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention wrote a letter to Ayotte Tuesday urging her to reconsider the decision. The organization noted that approximately 30% of women in New Hampshire — and a disproportionately large number of women of color — experience obesity and that obesity is associated with over 200 health complications, citing the American Medical Association and KFF.

Ayotte said Wednesday she would not reconsider the decision.

There are roughly 186,000 enrolled in Medicaid in New Hampshire, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. About 54% of them are women.

“When we’re talking about 180,000 enrollees, children and adults, that’s over 90,000 women who are Medicaid beneficiaries who may be living with obesity and could take advantage of receiving the obesity management medications basically to stem those comorbidities that are associated with living with obesity,” Millicent Gorham, CEO of the Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention, said in a phone interview with the Bulletin Thursday. “We’re talking about diabetes and high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease and cancer. So if we can stem those diseases, then hopefully we can have more healthier people living in New Hampshire.”

Gorham said the change, announced by the Department of Health and Human Services in October, may provide short-term cost savings but will be more expensive in the long run.

“People are going to be living longer with obesity, which is going to lend to any number of the other 200 comorbidities that are aligned with living with obesity,” she said. “And clearly, when you’re talking about things like diabetes and cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure and cancer and fertility issues that are specific to women, they’re going to end up with higher costs specifically related to those diseases and also specifically related to higher hospitalization costs.”

Gorham pointed to the stigma surrounding obesity and weight loss drugs.

“People really may not understand that people living with obesity is not just about an alternative lifestyle,” she said. “It really is a chronic disease. That’s the first thing that they need to understand: It is a chronic disease, no different than high blood pressure, no different than diabetes, and we need to treat it like that. No other disease has to take on the kind of scrutiny that obesity takes on.”

The Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention has launched a nationwide effort with a coalition of other health advocacy groups called Everybody Covered to push policymakers to improve coverage of GLP-1 drugs and other obesity treatments.

As of October, 16 states cover GLP-1 drugs, according to KFF. In addition to New Hampshire, California and South Carolina plan to end coverage of the drugs in January. North Carolina ended coverage last month while Michigan plans to limit coverage to people who are “morbidly obese.” The states say they can’t afford the drugs.

The Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention has been lobbying several states to maintain coverage of the drugs. Gorham said New Hampshire’s response has been “pretty much kinda the same” as other states.

GLP-1 drugs have been shown to be effective for weight loss, though they come with a number of side effects for some patients, including nausea, vomiting, headaches, diarrhea, and constipation, according to Harvard Medical School and the Cleveland Clinic. While some experts and researchers have concerns about the drugs’ long-term impact and safety, many argue the benefits outweigh the known risks.

A family in New Hampshire apparently got quite the scare on Thursday.

According to Salem, New Hampshire police, a 21-year-old man cut them off in traffic near Rockingham Park Boulevard at about 6:25 p.m., got out of his vehicle, and “began smashing their windshield with a baseball bat while threatening them.”

The family included a small child and an infant, said police, who responded to the scene after multiple witnesses called 911.

After the incident, the suspect got back in his vehicle and drove toward I-93, according to police. State Police then pulled him over on I-93, as witnesses had provided a license plate number and vehicle and suspect descriptions.

Anthony Bennett Rovelo Baldovino, of Manchester, New Hampshire, was identified as the man arrested. He was initially held without bail and charged with four counts each of kidnapping, criminal threatening with a deadly weapon, and reckless conduct with a deadly weapon, as well as driving with a suspended license. He was set to be arraigned Friday morning in Salem District Court.

By Arnie Alpert, Active with the Activists

Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace.  Officially retired from the American Friends Service Committee since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.  You can reach him at arnie.alpert@indepthnh.org. 

The “Red Cup Rebellion” strike of Starbucks workers reached New Hampshire Thursday, when baristas set up picket lines at stores in Epping, Stratham, and Seabrook.  The Stratham store, normally open until 9:00 pm, was closed by 12:30 pm. 

“We’re not staffed properly, so we’re overworked, and we don’t get paid enough for the amount of work that we do,” said Scott Lasalette, who was on the picket line outside the Epping store.  

Cailyn Heath, a shift supervisor at the Stratham Starbucks, said the strike will go on “as long as it takes.”

“We want better wages. We want better working conditions. We want people to be able to afford rent,” she said, “to be paid enough that they can afford an apartment, that they don’t have to be choosing between groceries and meds.”

Nationwide, the strike launched on November 13, with walkouts at 65 stores in more than 40 cities.  Like the UAW’s 2023 Stand Up Strike, Starbucks Workers United is adding more stores each week.  Today, the union said, baristas went on strike at 26 additional stores including the three in New Hampshire, bringing the total to more than 145. 

The company says “99% of our 17,000 U.S. locations remain open.”

The union says its strike is focused on hundreds of unresolved unfair labor practice charges, “more labor law violations than any employer in modern history.”  The charges include firings of union members and a failure to negotiate over policies such as a controversial dress code.

The union is getting support from the Teamsters Union, whose members have a practice of refusing to cross picket lines.  April Richer, a Dover Teamster who was on the picket lines in Epping and Stratham today, said a Teamster delivery driver turned back from the Stratham store this morning.  

Lasallette said the Epping store had less than half its normal staffing today due to the strike.  “The store can’t operate with those numbers,” he said.

By early afternoon, a sign taped to the door of the Stratham Starbucks said, “We have temporarily closed our in-store café, but our drive-through remains open.”  When I arrived at about 1 pm, the café was dark and the drive-through window appeared to be unstaffed.  “Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience,” the sign said.

According to a company statement, “Starbucks offers the best job in retail, with pay and benefits averaging $30 per hour for hourly partners.”  Lasallette said that as a full-time worker, he has access to benefits, but that many baristas, who work less than 20 hours a week, are out of luck.  “The benefits are nearly impossible to get with the current way that the stores are run,” he said.

According to the company’s own figures, its CEO last year made 6666 times as much as the median worker, a part-time barista earning $14,674 a year.

The union continues to ask potential customers to stay away from all Starbucks stores and products while the strike is on.  A union email, sent today, said, “On December 15, we’re asking allies across the country to show up at non-union Starbucks stores to ask customers to stop buying Starbucks. It only takes 1 to 3 people to make a real impact. And if we work together, we can talk to thousands upon thousands of customers at hundreds of stores all on the same day.”

According to the union, more than 200,000 people have signed their “No Contract, No Coffee” pledge.  The union has also drawn support from a wide range of organizations, including major unions, Peace Action, the Sunrise Movement, and the Democratic Socialists of America, which is organizing “strike kitchens” in support of union members.

The union and the company each accuse the other of walking away from the bargaining table.  “Right now, it’s their move,” Heath said.

Picketing Friday morning will focus on the Starbucks store at Seabrook Crossing.  The New Hampshire AFL-CIO emailed an alert to its members encouraging them to be there.