Jon Corzine's Healthcare Plan One Year Later

Last May, when running for governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine unveiled his healthcare plan under which he claimed would provide healthcare benefits to hundreds of thousands uninsured for a cost to taxpayers of $15 million.

When the Corzine plan came out we wrote:

Corzine Care would cover 776,000 people for an up front investment of $15 million. What’s the $15 mil for - the marketing campaign to get to people to sign up for Corzine Care? Let’s see, $15 million divided by 776,000 comes to $19.33 per person. How dumb does Corzine think we are? Upfront indeed.

The Corzine campaign responded to bloggers questioning the claim with a post on the Corzine Connection:

We've had several queries on the financing of the Corzine health care plan. The basic question is how could a plan that costs only $15 million in state money expand insurance coverage to more than 770,000 currently uninsured New Jerseyans? I asked Curtis Fisher, the policy analyst who wrote the plan, to blog an answer to that question.

Go ahead and read the response if you have the time to read the double talk. The idea that $15 million could somehow pay for medical coverage for 776,000 or even 76,000 people was preposterous. The average costs per Medicaid enrollment in New Jersey were available to anyone who bothered to look them up - $1,925 for a child and $9,362 for an adult. It doesn’t take a study to realize Corzine’s math just didn’t add up.

So where was the media when Corzine was running around the state campaigning on his healthcare plan? Did any newspaper or television news shows raise any questions about the plan or its costs? No, they just ran the Corzine campaign ads and took the millions. David Rebovich was penning his Jon Corzine: The Compassionate Corporate Executive as Politician piece.

On May 4, 2006 we wrote:

One year later, Governor Corzine’s proposed budget for 2007 is looking to add 50,000 children to the NJ FamilyCare program for a cost to state taxpayers of $5 million. That’s just six percent of those he claimed could be covered for $15 million. His cost estimate has jumped from $19.33 to $100 per person per year, but remains every bit as preposterous as his original claim, even when federal funding offsets are included in the calculation.

Now that Corzine has been elected and two months after the Governor unveiled his budget proposal the media has noticed:

Study: Corzine underestimated cost of expanded health insurance program - Asbury Park Press
Study sees hitch in kids' health plan - Newark Star Ledger

Study: Corzine's goal to insure children costlier than proposal – Newsday

Study: Corzine's Goal To Insure Children Costlier Than Proposal – WNBC

Study says Corzine erred on child health - NorthJersey.com

Higher cost cited for Corzine's health plan - Philadelphia Inquirer, PA

NJ plan to insure kids costlier than proposal - Dailyrecord

We are still waiting for the media to notice that there aren’t any cuts in Governor Corzine’s budget - just changes in spending priorities, a huge 9.2 percent spending increase and a call for the largest tax increase in New Jersey history.