Funding For Corzine’s Universal Health Care Plan

Remember when Jon Corzine was running for Governor he claimed he had a universal health care plan that would cover 776,000 people in New Jersey at a cost to state taxpayers of $15 million? We wrote a number of posts, beginning in May of 2005, pointing out the absurdity of his campaign promise.

Let’s see, $15 million divided by 776,000 comes to $19.33 per person.

Twenty-one months later and now Governor Corzine says we have to hock the Turnpike to pay for his plan to cover New Jersey’s uninsured.

The one option that is new and that we are now studying is asset monetization.

The economic potential from restructuring the state’s interest in our asset portfolio is too significant to ignore whether that asset is the Turnpike, the lottery, naming rights, air rights, or whatever.

Potentially, asset monetization could reset the state’s finances by dramatically reducing our debt burden, and consequently reducing debt service.

Monetization could free up as much as a billion dollars or more in every year's budget – long into the future.

The debt service payments made every year could more than fund the universal health care initiative that I’m working on with Senator Vitale.

Call us skeptical about Corzine’s latest cost estimate. New Jersey covers 612,520 residents through Medicaid at a total cost of over $7 billion – the cost evenly split between state and federal taxpayers.

For those who are willing to buy Corzine’s plan, we hear he has a bridge in Brooklyn he’d like to sell you.