NJ lawmakers Want to Reinstate the Individual Mandate on Obamacare

After President Trump Repealed he individual mandate on those who dont have health insurance to pay a yearly penalty, Democrat lawmakers at the NJ state Senate’s Commerce Committee approved the Democratic legislation, introduced earlier this week requiring a fee. The Bill would require every taxpayer in NJ to have health insurance or pay the tax. It still would have to be voted on by the assembly and legislature, Gov Murphy would sign it.


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The bill (S-1877), the “New Jersey Health Insurance Market Preservation Act,” would require those who don’t have health insurance plans that meet certain minimum standards to pay a fee to the state. This penalty would be determined under calculations previously used in the ACA, based in part on the cost of an average bronze-level plan sold on New Jersey’s individual health insurance market.



Exemptions would be available to individuals who could not afford coverage or for those who earn too little to pay tax, based on regulations to be determined by the Department of Banking and Insurance. The State Treasurer would also be empowered to consider hardship and religious exemptions on a case-by-case basis.

Sen. Gerald Cardinale (D-Passaic), called the measure “wrongheaded,” and objected to the concept of taxing individuals who have not chosen to purchase a specific product, in this case health insurance. “I don’t want to be insulting, but I think the tendency of legislators to try and run people’s lives is not warranted. We’re not that smart. People can make decisions for themselves,” he said.

The measure, which would take effect in 2019 but requires advance planning among state officials, was amended by the committee to ensure that all tax penalties collected be deposited in a newly-created fund; that fund would be used to help pay for reinsurance claims.

How would state determine affordability?
Additional amendments might also be needed, suggested Maura Collinsgru, healthcare policy director for New Jersey Citizen Action. While she supported the idea “in principle,” she worried about how the state would determine who could not afford coverage.

Collinsgru also flagged language that would make a taxpayer responsible for the coverage of all dependents, noting that this could disadvantage families in which one breadwinner is covered by an employee-sponsored plan, but other members are unable to afford coverage. As a result of the ACA’s “family glitch,” she said these families are often unable to obtain federal subsidies to help pay for care because one parent has a job and is covered.

“While we know this bill is modeled after the Affordable Care Act, the Affordable Care Act didn’t get it all right,” she said, adding that these shortcomings are a concern “in high-cost states like New Jersey.”