The Record Editorial Board

The Christie administration has brought its zeal for slashing costs to the healthcare arena, with its new Medicaid proposal. The number-crunchers should have taken a more nuanced approach. Instead, they seem to have tackled the problem with all the vigor of an extreme sport.

We have known since February that Governor Christie was looking to save several hundred million dollars in Medicaid funding, but we have not known for sure what that meant.

We know now: Parents in a family of three earning more than $5,000 a year would not be allowed to join NJ FamilyCare, which falls under the Medicaid umbrella. That means that the parents, or single parent with two children, would be ineligible if the weekly paycheck totaled more than around $97. It’s a precipitous drop — more like a freefall — from the current yearly income cutoff of $24,600 for that same family.

The Department of Human Services estimates this move will save the state $32.5 million. We agree with critics who warn that shutting people out of health care only transfers the costs elsewhere. People won’t stop seeking medical attention when they’re desperately ill; they’ll just go to emergency rooms and anywhere else that will see them. That’s no cost savings.

The plan is part of a larger proposal by the administration to restructure the state’s Medicaid program. The proposal cannot go through until the federal government approves the changes. We hope the Obama administration stops it in its tracks. This part, anyway.

The changes would affect only new enrollees. Anyone currently in the program would not be removed. Good. Children’s enrollment would not be affected, either, which is a relief. But in a roundabout way, kids will suffer.

Last year, the state scaled back the income eligibility for NJ FamilyCare to 133 percent of the poverty level from 200 percent. According to New Jersey Policy Perspective, a non-profit research organization, some 18,000 fewer kids were enrolled because of that one change. Imagine the number if most parents were shut out of the program.

As for the parents, NJPP estimates that if the proposal is approved, as many as 93,000 of the poorest New Jerseyans would be shut out of basic health care, including those from last year. And that number does not take into account the nearly 1,500 childless adults who will lose their health insurance if the state budget is approved.

Raymond Castro of NJPP says that for every dollar the state puts toward FamilyCare, the federal government kicks in $2. We would be losing millions of dollars in matching funds. Again, we fail to see significant savings.

There may be some areas within the state’s Medicaid program that can withstand trimming. We understand New Jersey does not have the money to fully fund every deserving program. But to deny health care to low-wage and unemployed parents is to toy dangerously with people’s health.

Access to health care is a basic human right. This proposed change to Medicaid must be stopped.