The Health Blog’s never-ending tour of state health-reform efforts now pulls into New Jersey, where a bill passed this week requiring all children to have health insurance. As part of the deal, the state will expand subsidies to help poor parents insure their kids. The state’s governor is expected to sign it into law, the Philly Inquirer reports.
Insurance mandates are a much-debated issue in the national conversation about how to reduce the number of uninsured. Massachusetts has gone whole hog with a broad mandate that is getting more people to sign up for coverage. But state subsidies created along with the mandate are proving more expensive than expected.
Requiring kids to have insurance is a sort of Mandate Lite. The notion that all kids should have insurance is less politically contentious. And kids tend to be healthy, which makes them cheaper to insure — a fact not lost on legislatures that are finding themselves strapped for cash these days.
Even so, finding the money to fund the New Jersey plan may prove tough, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The state has budgeted $8 million to start funding the program in September, but it’s unclear whether that will be enough.
Expect to hear more on Mandate Lite this summer and fall. Barack Obama favors health-insurance mandates for all children; John McCain doesn’t.
Health Blog Question of the Day: Should we mandate health insurance for all children? If so, how should we pay for the subsidies such mandates could require?
Write a comment