Globe: “Major repercussions for the nation’s hospitals… the state’s health care system is simply thrown out of whack”

Ciattarelli-backed legislation will “increase the cost of health care for many New Jerseyans”

TRENTON, NJ – The Republican price hike bill cheerleaded by Jack Ciattarelli is set to wreak havoc on New Jersey’s health care system, gut food assistance for vulnerable residents, and bring back the SALT cap that was set to expire.

Some key points from the New Jersey Globe’s Joey Fox, on what Ciattarelli “said he supported”:

• “The final version of the bill reduces Medicaid funding by around $1 trillion, a number that steadily climbed”

• “The results will be stark: an estimated 11.8 million Americans could lose health coverage”

• “350,000 people stand to lose NJ FamilyCare (the state’s local name for Medicaid)... One state health official likened the effects of the bill to the Obamacare repeal that Republicans never managed to pass in 2017.”

• “Insurance premium tax credits implemented under the Affordable Care Act [will] expire, which will increase the cost of health care for many New Jerseyans”

• “When hundreds of thousands of people are no longer covered by Medicaid, a big part of the state’s health care system is simply thrown out of whack, and hospitals have to deal with the fact that many of their patients no longer have health coverage”

• “The SALT cap was theoretically already set to expire… at the end of this year.”

• “The other major social spending program targeted by the OBBB is SNAP… That’s a major new hole to fill in the state budget, with officials warning that it could lead to the entire program falling through”

• Even some Republicans “expressed some worries during the negotiation process that the bill cut into clean energy programs too deeply despite ultimately voting for the bill.” 

• “There are all sorts of other policies embedded in the bill that could reshape key areas of American life.”