New Jersey Health Insurance

How healthy is living in New Jersey?

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.

Does New Jersey have a risk pool for the uninsurable?

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's guide on finding 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.
• Its guide on how to find health insurance in New Jersey.
• Materiales En Español -- Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown University's Guide to Health Insurance in New Jersey

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.

• Georgetown's guide for New Jersey.

News headlines on New Jersey health insurance

Find the most recent headlines on health insurance in New Jersey at Google News or Yahoo News.

Want single-payer health care? Concerned about the uninsured?
Contact your elected officials about health care issues

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.

• Contact the White House
  Phone: toll free 1-800-671-7887 (ask for the Comment Line)
  FAX: 1 202-456-2461 (fax)
  E-mail:comments@whitehouse.gov
  
  
• Find contact information on your U.S. Representative
  Locate by using your ZIP Code
  Or if you know who your representative is, simply call the Capitol Switchboard toll-free at 1-800-962-3524

• Senator Frank Lautenberg
  PHONE: 202-224-3224 (DC office)
  FAX: 202-228-4054 (DC office)
  Local offices
  Contact by E-mail

• Senator Robert Menendez
  PHONE: 202-224-4744 (DC office)
  FAX: 202-224-228-2197 (DC office)
  Local offices
  Contact by E-mail
  
  

Contact your state officials:

• New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine
  PO Box 001
  Trenton, NJ 08625
  PHONE: 609-292-6000
  Contact by e-mail
  
  
  
• Contact your New Jersey State Senator and State Representative

USNews health insurance rankings for New Jersey

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.

Official State Goverment Sites with New Jersey Health Insurance Information

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.

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.