NJ considers forcing residents to have health coverage
Lawmakers intend Monday to unveil a long-awaited plan that would require all New Jersey residents to have health coverage within three years, and officials say it would be financed in part by converting the mammoth Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey to a for-profit company.The proposal, which would make New Jersey only the fourth state in the nation with a universal health care law, could begin enrolling the state’s 1.4 million uninsured residents as early as August, its sponsors in the Legislature say.
“The right time to do this was a long time ago,” said Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), who has been crafting the plan with a health care think tank for 18 months. “I don’t think I have to sell it to the public. They more than understand the significance of health care and fear they will lose theirs if, God forbid, they get sick.”
To make the giant leap into creating a universal health care program, lawmakers are counting on a windfall — estimated at $1 billion to $2.5 billion — that would be generated by allowing Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield to convert to a for-profit company, according to two officials familiar with the plan.
The officials, who did not want to be identified because details on the Horizon conversion were not finalized, said those items will not be part of the bill introduced Monday. They said this would be worked out at a later date, noting money from a Horizon deal wouldn’t be needed until the final stages of the phase-in.
State officials have been discussing a possible conversion of Horizon, which has 3.2 million members, for more than a decade. The conversion would require approval from Horizon officials and could face up to 15 months of red tape from state regulators.
Gov. Jon Corzine, who has repeatedly said he supports Vitale’s efforts and wants to enact a universal health care program, will not comment before the bill is introduced, according to his spokesman Jim Gardner.
Good luck with that. I’m sure the predictions will turn out just as well as they did in Massachusetts. After Corzine’s spending freeze how exactly do they plan on paying for this? I can tell you now that their for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield plan won’t work. Taxpayers will end up covering this one way or another.
Just another reason to move out of this state.
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March 18th, 2008 at 8:38 am
On the one hand, I like the fact that Corzine is upfront about the state’s dire financial situation. Unfortunately, I have yet to really hear anything worthwhile from him about solving the problem. Raise taxes to pay down this deficit, okay as long as its short term (hahahaa, right). But what exactly has he proposed to cut, not freeze spending? (I’m not talking about shuffling the deck chairs either. It has to be a net budget cut.)
March 18th, 2008 at 8:46 am
I’ve not seen anything real specific..
Cutting jobs and pooling resources.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
They could sell the universal healthcare if there’s a net cost reduction by bringing down other wasteful programs as a result of all these poor people now having healthcare available. Without getting into moral discussions about government / charity / etc , is there no pragmatism in one form of universal healthcare or another?
March 18th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I don’t believe "pragmatism" is the word you’re looking for. I think lowest cost or economic efficiency or the like. Because in practice universal healthcare doesn’t work. (Not that this plan is universal healthcare but mandatory health insurance.) Imagine getting insurance for your car which covered everything from cleanings to engine checks to gas fill ups and oil changes. What do you think would happen to the price of all those goods and services? You think people would be incentived to over care for their car? Could it possibly be calculated that in the long run those over cared for cars save money as a whole? By introducing a proxy you mute most of the information which the market gives off. Individuals become unable to gauge the value of a product and not only do prices tend to go up but the optimal allocation of resources can not be accurately measured.
The practical method to get people healthcare is to remove disinsentives to personal responsibility and government regulation which raise prices.