newjerseynewsroom.com

Trenton, NJ – With only three days left for Governor Christie to act on the NJ Health Benefit Exchange Act, a group of small business owners, consumers, advocates, and legislators gathered at the state capital to call on Governor Christie to sign the bill, which would create a health insurance exchange in New Jersey.

“For too long, buying health insurance has been an anxiety-ridden, unaffordable experience for consumers and small business owners in New Jersey,” said Jeff Brown, Policy and Communications Coordinator for NJ Citizen Action. “By signing the NJ Health Benefit Exchange Act, Governor Christie can join with the sponsors of this bill to change that course and make insurance more affordable and higher quality for the consumer. With 1.3 million uninsured people in New Jersey, and countless others underinsured, it’s about time we put pragmatism before politics and did what is best for the health of our state.”

“As the owner of a small high-tech business, I can speak from experience and attest to how challenging it is for me to compete under the current insurance market,” said Samia Bahsoun, owner of S2 Associates International. “With rates rising 30 percent some years, it makes it hard for small business owners like me to provide insurance for our employees, and thus makes us less competitive. Not only is it harder to pay the bills, it’s also harder for me to attract top talent when big corporations can offer extensive benefits packages. The NJ Health Benefit Exchange Act would make my business more competitive by giving small business owner like me the same buying power as those large companies.”

“My colleagues and I face incredible challenges when it comes to buying insurance coverage,” said Teresa Politano, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers and free-lance reporter. “Many part-time lecturers piece together a full-time schedule, yet don’t get coverage subsidized by the state like full-time state workers do. Because of that, premiums are unaffordable and it becomes a huge financial burden to maintain insurance coverage for our families. With an insurance exchange, we could pool together our buying power with all the other working individuals who can’t get affordable coverage through their work and get better rates. I hope Governor Christie does the right thing and signs this bill.”

"Creating the Health Care Exchange will be a monumental step towards the goal of ensuring that quality and affordable health care is a reality for every resident of our great state," said Assemblyman Troy Singleton (D-Burlington), a prime sponsor of the bill. “We are calling on the Governor to sign this legislation and to stand with those of us who do not believe that we should treat health care as a political football."

“We are calling on Governor Christie to sign this legislation for the sake of the 1.3 million uninsured New Jerseyans and the countless others who struggle to afford their existing insurance,” said Assemblyman Herb Conaway, M.D., Chair of the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee and lead Assembly sponsor of the bill creating the health insurance exchange. “The people support it, the legislature passed it – it’s time for the Governor to get on board with the effort to provide quality and affordable health care to every New Jerseyan.”

The New Jersey Health Benefit Exchange Act, A2171, passed both houses of the NJ Legislature on March 15th. In a recent poll commissioned by AARP, three in five respondents said they wanted NJ to enact exchange legislation in 2012. Governor Christie has until May 10th to sign, veto, or conditionally veto the bill.