Chris Christie rejects the bill to create a state based online marketplace.
New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie has announced that he has vetoed a bill that would have had the state take part in the healthcare reforms for building an online health insurance exchange to allow uninsured residents to compare and purchase different plans.
This is the second time in 2012 that Christie has rejected legislation of this nature.
The Democratic-controlled legislature in the state has been working to try to establish a health insurance exchange that would be run by the state under the Affordable Care Act, but the republican governor is refusing to let it pass. These online marketplaces are meant to provide individuals and small businesses in the state with a place to perform plan comparisons and to obtain financial assistance in purchasing them.
New Jersey has become the nineteenth state to reject the creation of its own health insurance exchange.
This decision will place the health insurance marketplace for New Jersey in the hands of the federal government. According to the governor, the Affordable Care Act doesn’t provide the states with enough flexibility to create exchanges that are specific to the needs of their residents, and that the federal officials haven’t given the states adequate information about how the marketplaces should function.
He said in a health insurance news release that he wouldn’t request that the residents of the state “commit today to a state-based exchange when the federal government cannot tell us what it will cost, how that cost compares to other options and how much control they will give the states over this option that comes at the cost of our state’s taxpayers.”
The governor went on to say that he fully intends to have the state comply with the requirements of the healthcare reforms, but only through what he feels is the most cost effective and efficient method for the taxpayers of the state. Last Thursday, President Obama and Governor Christie met at the White House in order to discuss the funding that the federal government would be sending the state in order to assist with recovery from Hurricane Sandy.
