Herb Jackson
The Record
NorthJersey.com
3/14/2011
New Jersey’s beleaguered public worker health insurance fund got a nearly $39 million cash injection last year from a piece of the controversial federal health insurance law that Governor Christie derides as “Obamacare.”
Christie’s administration aggressively pursued the funding, a Treasury Department spokesman said, and is seeking payment for another $40 million already this year.
“We had to compete against other employers for the proceeds,” spokesman Andrew Pratt said in an e-mail. “Our application … got comparatively favorable treatment because it [was] filed very quickly after the application process began in July.”
New Jersey ranked second, behind California, among state governments receiving payouts from the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, according to a recent report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The program reimburses public- and private-sector employers and labor union benefit funds for some of the cost of providing health insurance to early retirees between ages 55 and 65.
The funding was designed to encourage employers that were providing early retiree insurance to keep doing so because coverage for older people who are not yet eligible for Medicare can be prohibitively expensive, according to an HHS spokesman, Keith Maley…[Emphasis CAJ]
…The state sought the funding at the same time Christie was disparaging the federal law that provided it…
The article continues at NorthJersey.com
From the article’s sidebar, What it means to you
What’s new: New Jersey’s overburdened public employee benefit program got $39 million — the second most of any state — because Governor Christie’s administration aggressively pursued money even as he derided the federal health insurance overhaul that provided it.
What’s next: The state is seeking another $40 million, but the program could run out of money.
What they’re saying: “These resources mean that empty-nesters won’t lose their nest egg if they get sick.” — Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J.
Top state recipients
The federal health insurance reform law included a provision that on July 1 began reimbursing approved employers in the public and private sectors for some of the cost of insuring early retirees. These state systems got the most:California Public Employees Retirement System: $57.8 million
New Jersey Division of Pensions and Benefits: $38.6 million
Georgia State Health Benefit Plan: $34.9 million
Commonwealth of Kentucky: $29.7 million
Texas Employees Retirement System: $21 million
Louisiana Office of Group Benefits: $6 million
Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration: $5.4 million
Oklahoma State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board: $5 million
State of Michigan: $3.9 million
Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan: $3 million…
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Read the complete list here.
H/T Riehl World View
…Oh, and the program encourages states to continue the program, apparently. Imagine that. Well, that’s not quite as bad as Mitch Daniels, who expanded public health care in Indiana, I guess. But it’s close. Christie can’t afford to do it, … for now…
Might explain what that secretly embedded $105 billion is earmarked for…This is like watching a junkie visiting the pusher…~CAJ
Related: Unbelievable video at Weasel Zippers:
Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNSNews.com today that the health-care law that President Barack Obama signed last March is a “platform” for a building single-payer health system in the U.S…
Update: Weasel Zippers, Obama Regime Warns Supreme Court: Stay Away From ObamaCare… Because if there’s one thing the Supreme Court likes it’s being told by the White House what to do.
