Change in eligibility rules leaves thousands of N.J. residents without healthcare, lawmakers say [View all]
By Susan K. Livio
The Star-Ledger
Dec 03, 2012
TRENTON — More than 46,000 people in New Jersey lost health coverage since March 2010 because of a complicated change in eligibility requirements for NJ FamilyCare, the popular state-run HMO insurance program for the working poor, lawmakers and legal advocates say.
Facing a wide budget gap in early 2010, the Christie administration announced it would not accept any more parents as new applicants and cut eligibility to only those families making no more 33 percent above the federal poverty rate, or $25,390 for a family of three, based on current income standards. Before the change, FamilyCare accepted parents if they had earned up to twice the poverty rate.
In addition, if parents’ income levels changed when reapplying each year, they would be deemed a new applicant — and rejected because the program was frozen.
Legal advocates for low-income families and legislators said they assumed freezing enrollment meant the 62,800 parents who earned slightly more than half the poverty rate and who were participating in the program prior to March 2010 would be "grandfathered" and allowed to remain until they got employer-sponsored benefits or moved out of state.
But as of November, just 16,300 of these parents remained in the program, even though some are earning less than they did when they first enrolled, legal advocates claim. Losing a job and getting unemployment, or receiving other sources of what the government calls "unearned income" such as child support, has in many cases disqualified them from health coverage.
"By treating them as new enrollees they are forcing these people out of the program when their fiancial situation has become more strained," said Laurie McCabe, chief of staff to Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), who sponsored a bill to change the eligibility rules.
More: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/12/change_in_eligibility_rules_le.html
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