By Raymond J. Castro

The economy gets weaker. More families are unsure of how to pay their mortgage and afford rising gas prices to get to work. And the Bush administration says many of their children should no longer be eligible for affordable health coverage.

This NJPP report shows how new rules issued by the administration would have a more severe impact on New Jersey than had been expected, both in terms of the children who would lose health insurance and the loss of federal funding.

Over five years, 35,000 fewer New Jersey children would have health coverage and the state would lose $215 million because of new rules that sharply limit states’ abilities to insure kids whose family income is above the limit set by the Bush administration. The new federal policy is shortsighted and downright stingy. Instead of investing in our kids’ future it would reduce their chances for a healthy life. The report presents data for the first time broken down by congressional district, showing that the impact on New Jersey is widespread and by no means confined to the lowest-income areas.

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