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New Jersey says study wrong about state’s newly uninsured
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A new report suggests that nearly 100,000 adults in New Jersey lost health insurance so far this year, but the state's Health Department says New Jersey is actually lowering its uninsured rates at a time when other states' are rising.
A nonprofit organization called Families USA released a study Tuesday that breaks down how many people in each state lost health insurance due to unemployment in the first eight months of 2009.
According to the study, a projected 99,500 adults in New Jersey could lose their health insurance from the beginning of the year through August. The figure is based on New Jersey's unemployment rate, which increased from an average of 5.5 percent in 2008 to 8.7 percent in the first eight months of this year.
"People who receive a pink slip experience a double whammy," said Ron Pollack, executive director for Families USA. "When health insurance is lost with a job, it's a devastating one-two punch."
The study projects that more than 4 million people across the United States would lose their health insurance in 2009.
The study was based on a model from the Urban Institute that figures for every percentage point increase in unemployment, the uninsured rate also increases by 0.59 percentage points.
However, the study does not take into account individual state programs that might affect those numbers. In New Jersey's case, the number of uninsured people in New Jersey actually decreased by more than 11 percent from 2007 to 2008 when the national uninsured average rose by 1.5 percent.
The state's rate dropped because of the expansion of NJ FamilyCare, an insurance program for low-income families. In New Jersey, people are eligible for the program if they are at or below 350 percent of the poverty level.
While state health officials criticized the methodology for not taking into account individual state programs, there was agreement about the need for health care reform to address the nation's uninsured rate.
"We can confirm what the report is saying, which is that we need the federal government to take the lead on this problem," said Eliot Fishman, director of policy for New Jersey's Department of Health and Senior Services.
Contact Ben Leach:
609-272-7261
See the study:
To view the Families USA study about the unemployment rate's impact on health insurance, visit their web site at: www.familiesusa.org
Posted in Breaking, New_jersey, Atlantic on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 5:40 pm
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