Medicaid expansion is now state law, making some 50,000 poor adults in New Hampshire eligible for federal subsidies under so-called Obamacare.
Governor Maggie Hassan signed the expansion bill at a crowded public ceremony using 18 separate pens -- one for each letter of her full name.
She hailed the new law as a bipartisan proposal that moves the state forward.
“Today we are signing into law the most significant piece of health care legislation that the state of N.H. has seen in decades.”
The law will rely on federal funds -- $340 million dollars a year when the program is fully up and running -- to buy private health coverage for adults making less than 138 percent of the federal poverty limit.
The use of private insurance was crucial to the plan winning favor with top Republicans in the GOP-led state senate.
Half of the GOP caucus ended up supporting the bill, though none joined Hassan at the signing ceremony.
