Providing Affordable Health Insurance and Bringing Down Health Care Costs
The rising cost of health care, driven partly by the soaring price of prescription drugs and partly by 2004 legislation that has driven up the cost of health insurance for thousands of small businesses, has underscored the need for wholesale reform of health care in New Hampshire.

• NHPIRG supports a repeal of 2004 legislation that abolished the practice of "community rating" in determining health insurance costs. The 2004 bill failed to attract new competition, and has instead led to skyrocketing health insurance costs.

• NHPIRG supports legislation to lower the cost of prescription drugs by creating a buying pool for New Hampshire consumers (SB110).

• NHPIRG supports legislation that would require pharmaceutical companies to publicly disclose gifts and payments to doctors, nurses, and hospitals when the gifts are meant to market and promote new drugs (SB211).

Reforming Ethics Law
New Hampshire prides itself on its citizen legislature. Yet, recently exposed holes in the state's ethics rules have allowed special interest lobbyists to attempt to unduly influence elected officials.

• NHPIRG supports legislation that would set tough limits on gifts and honorariums to legislators and other elected officials from lobbyists and others who seek to influence public policy (HB607).

Safeguarding Privacy
Protecting financial and medical privacy has emerged as one of the most pressing concerns facing consumers. The Federal Trade Commission reported nearly 200 instances of identity theft in New Hampshire in 2001 alone.

• NHPIRG supports legislation that would protect against credit card fraud by preventing retail merchants from printing more than five digits of a customer's credit card on a receipt (HB188).

• NHPIRG supports legislation to establish a commission charged with studying the myriad financial and medical privacy problems facing New Hampshire consumers, and recommending policy solutions to the Legislature (HB231).

Promoting Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency
New Hampshire's demand for power is growing almost twice as fast as our population and, even though clean and safe sources of energy like wind and solar power are now cheaper and more reliable than ever, more than 90 percent of our power comes from fossil fuels and nuclear reactors.

At the same time, outdated and inefficient appliances waste vast amounts of electricity-even though we know more now about using energy efficiently than we ever have before.

• NHPIRG supports updating energy efficiency rules for 10 everyday items, a move that would almost immediately begin saving money for New Hampshire consumers, businesses, schools, and the state government itself.

• NHPIRG opposes the repeal of a law that requires electric utilities to inform customers about the sources of the electricity they sell and the pollution associated with generating that power (HB174).