Number of New Jerseyans without health insurance dropped by 11 percent in 2007-08

The newjerseynewsroom.com published an artilce today detailing how the number of New Jerseyan without health insurance dropped more than 11 percent thanks mainly to the efforts of Governor Corzine and the NJ Health Care Reform Act of 2008, which he signed into law in July.

The NJ FamilyCare Program is a free or low-cost program for income-eligible families. A family of four earning up to $77,175 or 350 percent of the federal poverty level, can qualify to insure their children for about $130 a month in the state and federally funded program.

Below is an excerpt from the Tom Hester's column at the newsroom followed by a video released earlier today by the Governor's office which announced the remarkable drop in the number of uninsured New Jerseyans:

"The number of New Jerseyans without health insurance decreased by more than 11 percent or by 147,000 individuals, the second largest reduction in the nation between 2007 and 2008, Gov. Jon Corzine said Monday.

At the same time, the number of uninsured in the United States rose by 1.5 percent, according to a U.S. Census report on the income, poverty and health insurance coverage nationwide in 2008.

Corzine credited what he described as aggressive initiatives aimed at enrolling the uninsured for the declining New Jersey rate. He also credited the decrease to the landmark New Jersey Health Care Reform Act of 2008 that he signed into law in July, which expanded health insurance eligibility and provided more access to affordable health insurance for children.

"Families cannot build a strong economic future for their children without stable, secure and affordable health insurance and that is what our administration has been working to accomplish," Corzine said.

"In New Jersey, we are setting the national standard to ensure our families have secure and affordable health care and our children have a healthy start in life. We have ramped up our enrollment efforts and worked fervently by expanding NJ FamilyCare to include a child mandate. We said, ‘No,' to the Bush administration when it tried to cut 10,000 kids out of New Jersey's Family Care Program and we have implemented a new Express Lane option to reach and enroll every eligible child. Providing access to affordable health insurance and expanding eligibility has and will continue to be a priority of my Administration."..."

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