New Jersey slid a full seven places in the 2007 ratings by a leading health care foundation. The state is now considered only the 21st healthiest state in which to live.
Increases in the number of children living in poverty and the population of uninsured partially explain the drop.
New Jersey women continue to have the second worst access to adequate prenatal care, and the state barely misses being in the bottom five of states having difficultly combating infectious disease.
New Jersey has done a better job with reducing cardiovascular deaths, but so have other states, so its most recent rank is unchanged at #24. The same is true for incidents of violent crime.
See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on New Jersey.
New Jersey does not have a state risk pool. The state has guaranteed-issue meaning all citizens will be accepted at the same premium regardless of their health. Thus New Yorkers are lucky to have access to health insurance that is much better than a risk pool (which almost always charges a higher-than-the-going-rate because it is made up of uninsurable people).
Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state-to-state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the poolto keep it in the black. In the best cases they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Find more on risk pools here.
Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations contribute to funding its research. Find more on the Health Policy Institute.
Find the most recent headlines on health insurance in New Jersey at Google News or Yahoo News.

Contact your federal officials. Phone calls are best. Faxes are good, too. Since 9-11 postal mail creates long delays, and many members of Congress simply do not take e-mail seriously -- however, since e-mail is so easy it doesn't hurt to do that, too. Members of the Senate and Congress will usually ignore any correspondence that is not from their district, so its not desirable to blanket e-mail them (this type of abuse is why many do not view it favorably). The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a guide on how to contact your elected officials, including a valuable list of dos and dont's.
US News does an annual ranking of what it considers the best health insurance plans in each state. Visit its reports on various health insurance or medical insurance plans being offered in New Jersey.
New Jersey Health and Human Services -- Health Insurance section -- provides information health insurance for citizen's of New Jersey.
NJ FamilyCare -- low cost or no cost health insurance program from the State of New Jersey kids and certain low-income parents.
New Jersey Citizens Action -- the state's largest citizen watchdog coalition, which says it works to protect and expand the rights of individuals and families and to ensure that government officials respond to the needs of people.