New Jersey health insurance

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status report:
New Jersey state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated New Jersey state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did New Jersey officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (6)

• Rodney Frelinghuysen
• Scott Garrett
• Leonard Lance
• Frank LoBiondo

• Jon Runyan
• Christopher Smith

Our
Pick

No (7)

• Robert Andrews
• Rush Holt
• Frank Pallone
• William Pascrell

• Donald Payne
• Steven Rothman
• Albio Sires

how healthy is living in New Jersey?

New Jersey is ranked as the 17th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation. This is a one-spot climb from 2009, when it was ranked at 18th.

The good news:

• New Jersey was praised in 2010 for its high rate of high school graduation; 84.4 percent of ninth graders graduated within their expected four years of high school.
• Another of its strengths was its high rating for availability of primary care physicians, with 143.1 physicians for every 100,000 members of the population.
• The state also shows low rates of both infant mortality and children in poverty, although the latter has increased over the past five years, from 8.4 to 12.8 percent of the population under the age of 18.
• In the past few years, New Jersey has seen a decline in both air pollution and violent crime.

The bad news:

• The prevalence of obesity in New Jersey has increased over the past decade, and is now at 23.9 percent of the population.
• Other challenges include a high rate of preventable hospitalizations and a low rate of early prenatal care, with only 77.4 percent of women receiving care within their first trimester of pregnancy.
• There is also a relatively high rate of infectious disease, with 19.4 cases per 100,000 members of the population.

New Jersey's best and worst category rankings:

• Infant mortality – 5th
• High school graduation (84.4. percent) – 6th
• Children in poverty – 6th
• Immunization coverage (88.4 percent) – 37th
• Infectious disease – 41st
• Early prenatal care – 44th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on New Jersey.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key New Jersey health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts New Jersey here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for New Jersey, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does New Jersey have a health insurance high risk pool?

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).

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, New Jersey started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about New Jersey's participation, click here.

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 pool to 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. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in New Jersey

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.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in New Jersey and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in New Jersey.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's New Jersey health insurance guide

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 help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for New Jersey.

Health insurance plan report cards for New Jersey

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for New Jersey health insurance plan report cards.

New Jersey government health insurance resources

New Jersey Shopping for Health Insurance – Individual Market – 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.

Non-profit sites of interest to those in New Jersey

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.

New Jersey Consumer Health Helpline – a free program that helps consumers access affordable, quality health care and effectively navigate the often complex health insurance system.