Governor Kelly Ayotte called on lawmakers to force private insurers to cover mental health services for children, hours before a House committee voted to shelve the legislation addressing the issue. The debate centers on Senate Bill 498, which would have closed a coverage gap costing taxpayers and the state roughly $2 million a year to fund a behavioral health program for privately insured children ages 5 to 21.
Ayotte singled out Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, which insures the largest share of children enrolled in the state’s Families and Systems Together (FAST) Forward program. “It’s appalling that Anthem and other carriers would deny coverage for critical services to any child experiencing a mental health crisis,” she said. FAST Forward is a wraparound program offering individualized care, including peer support, crisis planning and family-centered services. While private insurers cover some services under the program, they do so piecemeal rather than at a bundled rate.
Katie Lyon-Pingree, a mother whose son struggled with mental health, said she was never made aware of the service despite many interventions. “The system we have is a joke,” she stated. Advocates said the program’s success lies in bundling services, which would allow teams to provide coordinated services from school counselors and therapists to caregiver respite.
Jim Turner, a spokesperson for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, said the company is disappointed by Ayotte’s comments and expressed concerns about the bill. The bill cleared the Senate but was voted down 13-4 by the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee, sent to interim study instead. Despite this setback, the bill will still face a full House floor vote. Henn, deputy commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, expressed concern that the state has spent more than five years working with insurance carriers and the New Hampshire Insurance Department to find a solution without real impact.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.concordmonitor.com/2026/05/06/ayotte-targets-anthem-over-child-mental-health-coverage-hours-before-house-shelves-fix/