Governor Christie said Monday that more than half a million people now have “comprehensive” health coverage through the expansion of Medicaid.
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“Suggestions that if we did Medicaid expansion the right way that we would further burden the state budget were wrong then and are now proven wrong now”, Gov. Christie said at a news conference.
Christie says 566,655 residents now have the coverage, bringing the number of insured residents under the state’s public health insurance program to 1.7 million. “That’s why the state’s charity care program and the services of our hospital safety net remain so vital even post-Medicaid expansion”.
The announcement comes as GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has denounced the Affordable Care Act. Beyond that, she said, states that haven’t expanded have almost double the percentage of rural hospitals at risk of closure; hospital uncompensated care costs have dropped by large amounts – more than $1 billion in Arkansas alone – and state budgets have seen net positive impacts.
Over the same period, he said, New Jersey’s share of the cost of Medicaid has dropped from 45 percent in 2014 to 39 percent a year ago, with the federal government covering the remainder. “It just means that they will be used to expand health care access in New York, Connecticut, Ohio or somewhere else”, Christie said during the 2013 budget address where he announced his decision to accept the funding to expand the program.
Chris Christie (R) on Monday defended his decision to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare, saying critics had been “proven wrong”.
“The part of Obamacare I have been critical of has been the exchanges, the taxes and fees that have gone along with it. If they keep their deal, we’ll keep our part of the deal”, he said.
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“We’re making progress, but there’s much more to be done”, she said.
