IN THE STATES: Health Reform Blossoms in Garden State

Even in a time of very tight state budgets, New Jersey's governor and legislature are taking major steps toward covering all of the state's residents, according to the Philadelpia Inquirer. This week the state Senate and Assembly both passed a measure (S-1557) that would require all children to be covered and would also cover some low-income parents. They provided $8.9 million in new funds to expand FamilyCare, (the state's health insurance program for low-income children and some adults), and moved to allow insurance premiums offered on the individual market to vary based on age to make plans more affordable for younger adults and help bring them into the health insurance pool.

The move to cover all of the state's children is the first step in a two-phase plan to cover all New Jerseyans we wrote about earlier this year. The second phase of reforms will seek to require all individuals to have coverage and create a new insurance option for uninsured residents with subsidies to ensure insurance is affordable. That second phase is still subject to more political debate.

State Senator Joseph Vitale, a leader on the reform efforts in the state who recently presented the state's work at a panel at AcademyHealth, noted "It's the only way that literally hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans who are uninsured will ever have access to affordable health insurance... It's a gateway to care that's dependable and affordable and reliable."