By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — The House Thursday voted to make Ivermectin available over the counter, but effectively killed a bill to streamline the application process for the child care scholarship program Thursday.

The House also killed a bill that would have expanded safety and quality regulations to all health care facilities and nursing homes in the state saying it amounted to government overreach.

Senate Bill 119 would allow dispensing pharmacies in the Medicaid program to dispense brand name medications if they are cheaper than their generic equivalent which is estimated to save the state about $9 million a year in drug costs.

The Senate re-referred a House bill making Ivermectin a standing order, which makes its available to anyone after a doctor writes a prescription for the drug, which may bring it back next year.

The House Health and Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee added the language allowing Ivermectin, which was touted as a treatment for COVID, while it is intended to eliminate internal parasites, to be a standing order.

There are currently three standing orders in New Hampshire all written by the Medical Director at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for a smoking cessation drug, narcan and similar overdose reversing drugs and for Epi pens.

Rep. Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, said it is bad legislating to tack two different bills together when each ought to be able to stand on its own.

She said there is no evidence the drug is effective against COVID or cancer as some claimed at the public hearing.

The bill is unnecessary because there are doctors who are willing to prescribe the drug for off-label uses to anybody who wants it without making it essentially an over the counter drug, Weber said.

The amendment could jeopardize a very sensible cost-saving measure, she noted.

But Rep. Linda McGrath, R-Hampton, said the drug has proven to be effective against COVID and should be available to anyone who wants it as it has been proven safe for human use.

“Patients have the right to try the safest medications in the world if they want,” she said, but they won’t be able to  because “physicians won’t prescribe it.”

The amendment adding Ivermectin passed on a 196-164 vote.

The bill goes back to the Senate because of the change the House made.

Child Care

The House tabled Senate Bill 243 which would have streamlined the application process for the state’s child care scholarship program with the majority claiming the bill did little good and there was no evidence the money it appropriated would be spent to expand child care opportunities.

However Rep. Paige Beauchemin, D-Nashua, said that child care is one of the top issues in the state and the bill is the only one this session “chipping away” at the issue.

Parents with young children face dire child care issues, she noted, with the application process incredibly burdensome and it requires a parent to already have a spot reserved at a day care facility before they can be approved while some parents are waiting two years or more for a spot to open.

She said she spoke to a young woman who owned a small business in Nashua who had to close it because she could not find child care.

The issue impacts day care centers, parents and businesses, Beauchemin said. “This is a family issue and this is an economic issue.”

The House voted 277-83 to table the bill.

Safety Measures

Senate Bill 37 would have expanded the safety regulations governing hospitals and nursing homes to independent residential care and medical facilities.

Rep. Gary Woods, D-Concord, a retired physician, said the medical industry has undergone fragmentation with many speciality services now independent and outside of hospitals.

The bill would just require those independent facilities to meet the same safety and quality standards they would a hospital, he said, denying that it is government overreach.

He said the bill would give comfort to patients using the independent facilities.

But Rep. Wayne MacDonald, R-Londonderry, said the bill makes a voluntary program mandatory, and would be an added burden to virtually every healthcare facility in the state.

The industry is already heavily regulated, he said.

The bill was killed on a 195-164 vote.

Killed

The House killed Senate Bill 130 which would have established a commission to study ambulance emergency services.

And the House killed Senate Bill 257 which would have studied the Medicaid application process for nursing homes hoping to shorten the current seven-month long process.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.