Barack Obama was in New Jersey yesterday pledging to deliver universal health insurance coverage during his first term as president, if elected.

The Democratic hopeful from Illinois said he would pay for his plan by saving $75 billion through emphasizing preventative health care, providing better care for the chronically ill and using new technology to reduce paperwork and bureaucracy. If needed, Obama said he would roll back tax cuts that he said benefited the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

So what would universal health insurance cost? Assuming Obama is only looking to cover those currently uninsured; we’re looking at a tab far greater than the $75 billion he claims can be saved though various measures.

It’s estimated that 46 million people lack heath insurance in the United States. New Jersey spends $9 billion per year to cover about 900,000 people through Medicaid, an average cost of $10,000 per person. At that rate it would cost about $460 billion to cover the uninsured. Minus the $75 billion in savings, that leaves a beginning cost of about $395 billion for the new program.

If Obama’s talking about a truly universal program – a total government takeover of health insurance – we’re talking about a cost in excess of $2 trillion.

So who’s going to be hit with the huge tax increase to pay for a universal health insurance program? Putting aside the fact wealth is not taxed, but rather income earned in a specific year, there are only about 1.3 million tax filers in the top 1 percent. It’s unlikely a $395+ billion income tax increase could be confined to this ever changing top 1 percent. What Obama’s really talking about is a tax increase on everyone who pays federal income taxes.

Here’s a more basic question. - is a new or expanded government program really the best solution to the health insurance problem or the escalating costs for health care?

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.