If passed, the bill would require any health insurance carrier in New Hampshire that covers adolescents to contribute a proportional share to fund the program, ensuring these vital services are accessible to families like the Pingrees, who live in Bow.<\/p>\n
Michele Merritt, president of New Futures, a public health advocacy nonprofit, said getting private insurance providers to cover these services has been a five-year fight.<\/p>\n
When insurers don\u2019t provide coverage, families can apply for a Medicaid waiver,\u00a0 but only if their child\u2019s mental health condition is severe enough to put them at risk of hospitalization.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrivate health insurance carriers are saying that they don\u2019t typically pay for non-clinical services, and I find it offensive, because it is a service that is necessary for a child who has mental illness to be able to stay in their home safely with their family,\u201d said Merritt.<\/p>\n
When children don\u2019t qualify for Medicaid waivers, the state steps in, spending around $2 million each year from New Hampshire\u2019s general fund, according to New Futures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018What do we do as parents?\u2019<\/p>\n
There was more to Matthew than his mental health diagnosis. He was on the wrestling team at Bow High School. He loved chess and space. He was an active Boy Scout.<\/p>\n
Pingree remembers a trip to Vermont when Matthew was learning to drive. She had two phones open, playing an online chess game on his behalf. From the driver\u2019s seat and without looking at the screens, Matthew guided her through every move, winning the game effortlessly against his mother.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Photo-cm-021026.jpg\")
A photo of Matthew Pingree Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP \/ Monitor<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very intelligent, too smart for his own good, which was honestly one of the struggles we had with therapists who just couldn\u2019t intellectually keep up with him,\u201d said Pingree.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Matthew was 14, Pingree said she knew something was wrong, but she couldn\u2019t pinpoint the issue. In 2019, Matthew confided in his school psychologist that he had made a plan to take his own life.<\/p>\n
What followed was a blur of hospital admissions, therapy appointments and mounting medical bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the months that followed, Matthew made another attempt to take his life, but this time, Pingree and her husband managed to intervene in time.<\/p>\n
They slept on the floor in his room that night, staying by his side to keep him alive.<\/p>\n
They refused to take Matthew to the emergency room because of a previous trip that haunted them. Eventually, the Pingrees sent Matthew to a residential treatment facility in Utah, navigating the process entirely on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Files4-cm-021026.jpg\")
Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP \/ Monitor<\/p>\n
When they visited him the first time, he barely acknowledged them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe literally sat in a room at a table for five minutes while he gave us the cold shoulder, and then he got up and walked out,\u201d Pingree said. \u201cThat was the extent of our first visit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pingree believes that if wraparound services had been available in their own state, Matthew could have stayed at home, surrounded by the love of his family and the support of his community. She might have had the chance to rebuild her relationship with him, instead of watching his anger grow toward the very people who wanted to help him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system we have is a joke.\u2029It is an insult to families,\u201d Pingree said about her family\u2019s options in New Hampshire. \u201cWhat do we do as parents? I\u2019m just flailing around as best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
After ten months in Utah, Matthew returned home, but things still weren\u2019t okay. He would pace around the kitchen in a manic state, lash out at his younger brother and cut himself off from the family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a lot of sort of normalcy and places for connection,\u201d Pingree said, her mouth quivering as she struggled to hold back tears. \u201cGenuinely, towards the end, I was afraid of him. I was afraid to be in the house. It was extremely tense in here.\u201d<\/p>\n
After returning home, Matthew graduated from school and even enrolled at the University of New Hampshire, but only for three months before dropping out. For a while, it seemed like things were finally starting to settle, like a fragile sense of stability was returning.<\/p>\n
On a December morning in 2021, when Pingree texted him as she usually did, he didn\u2019t respond. It wasn\u2019t the first time he had been slow to reply, so she went up to his room, expecting to find him getting dressed, just like any other day.<\/p>\n
She entered the room to see an open window letting in the sharp December air and her son laying motionless on the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His skin had lost all color, his body was already stiff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The reality of Pingree\u2019s loss didn\u2019t fully hit until the police and EMT personnel arrived. Then, she understood, with a crushing finality, that her son was gone.<\/p>\n
As she sifted through his belongings in the months after, she found a note from Matthew, written with a heartbroken simplicity: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I love you. I couldn\u2019t do it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Note-cm-021026.jpg\")
A note Matthew Pingree wrote months before he died Credit: ALEXANDER RAPP \/ Monitor<\/p>\n
Years have passed, but Pingree hasn\u2019t forgotten. She wants to make sure no other family faces the same struggles she did, navigating a maze of services that either weren\u2019t known to her or were blocked off by insurance.<\/p>\n
She plans to testify on Wednesday at the bill\u2019s public hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I think too hard about the what-ifs, that\u2019s what kills you. I didn\u2019t even know the services had existed until after he died,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to know if it would have helped. I\u2019m highly motivated to help other families because nobody should have to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you need help<\/p>\n