This edition of our E-Update includes news about the GOP Budget proposal and Jay's response to plans to expand government-run healthcare in New Jersey . . .

Meet the Leaders. Watch Jay on Cablevision's Meet the Leaders program, starting on Sunday. The show airs the week of June 29 on Cablevision's local programming channel 78 or 118 (depending on where you live) each day at these times: 7:30 am, 10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm, and 10 pm.

GOP Budget Proposal. Read the coverage of Jay's press conference promoting the Republican Budget proposal that would reduce spending, restore property-tax relief, and replenish the State's transportation trust fund.

Jay Fights Bureaucracy-Based Healthcare. On Monday, Jay rose on the floor of the General Assembly to challenge the expansion of one of New Jersey's waste-ridden, government-run healthcare programs:

MORE REGULATION AND TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES CANNOT SOLVE THE EFFECTS OF HYPER-REGULATION

As the Assembly approved the expansion of government-run healthcare in New Jersey with the passage of A-2624, Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26) stated that the bill passed by the Assembly today only proves the failures of current overregulation of healthcare in New Jersey.

“Hyper-regulation of the health insurance market has caused healthcare insurance to bein accessible and unaffordable for too many New Jerseyans, especially our children. Having jacked upthe price of healthcare on all of us, our government now proposes to tax us more, so it can subsidize the unaffordable healthcare policies it has given us,” stated Assemblyman Webber.

Assemblyman Webber also pointed out that the current FamilyCare program is rife with rampant mismanagement, paltry oversight, fraud, and abuse. Examples of waste from an audit released earlier this year include:

/ The program paid out $43.1 million to participants without even knowing if they qualified.

/ The government refuses even to attempt to collect $4.6 million that 16,300 participants owe the taxpayers.

/ People earning as much as $295,000 per year enrolled in the program purporting to cover the poor.

/ $2.1 million paid from July 2005 to December 2007 for medical equipment that nursing home facilities should have paid.

/ Spending $100,000 by sending as many as 3 blood pressure monitors to Medicaid patients, even though many come with warranties and are replaced for free by drugstore chains.

“The existing program should be fixed first and its integrity ensured before there is any talk of expanding a program riddled with fraud and abuse. Trenton’s answer on bureaucracy-based healthcare, as with other audited areas, seems to be, ‘if it’s broken, expand it!,’” continued Webber.

The expansion of the program will cost the taxpayers at least $28 million in year one (and as much as $122 million), while the FY2009 Budget includes only $8 million to fund the expansion.

“The bill not only compounds the problems with our healthcare, but lacks dedicated funding to support it. The money to pay for the expanded program is not included in the Budget, representing yet another example of irresponsible spending,” Webber commented.

“Government has a role to play in providing a genuine safety net for those who can’t afford healthcare, but before the government steps in, we should be focused on giving New Jerseyans more choices in the private healthcare market. The gradual creep of government control over our healthcare, which is what A-2624 represents, will crowd out those choices. If we really are concerned withaffordable and accessible healthcare, our leaders will reinvigorate our healthcare market for NewJersey’s families and stop trying to run the system from Trenton,” stated Webber.

Assemblyman Webber is the sponsor of the New Jersey Healthcare Choice Act, A-2767, which would immediately make healthcare more accessible and affordable for New Jerseyans, without taxpayer subsidies.

To read Press Coverage click here

As always, you can reach Jay at asmwebber@njleg.org and (973) 984-0922. Please stay in touch -- your thoughts and comments always are welcomed!

www.WebberforAssembly.com