TRENTON — New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner Justin Zimmerman has sent a letter to New Jersey’s Congressional delegation warning them of the devastating impacts of the reconciliation package on access to quality, affordable health coverage for millions of Americans who need it, including over 513,000 New Jerseyans. The letter follows the U.S. House passage of the reconciliation package on May 22. A version of the bill is currently pending before the U.S. Senate.
The bill package would repeal key provisions of the Affordable Care Act, making it more difficult and expensive to enroll in coverage through Get Covered New Jersey, the State’s Official Health Insurance Marketplace. This legislation would:
- Unnecessarily increase costs and impose unprecedented barriers to coverage for New Jerseyans enrolled through Get Covered New Jersey;
- End long-standing state autonomy and flexibility that allow states to tailor the Marketplace to their residents’ needs, which have resulted in connecting hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans to quality, affordable health coverage; and
- Fail to extend enhanced premium tax credits, drastically increasing costs for over 454,000 New Jersey residents enrolled in Get Covered New Jersey.
“Since the launch of Get Covered New Jersey, the Murphy Administration has expanded access to and increased affordability of health insurance for hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans. The proposed changes before Congress would force the reversal of policies that have significantly helped New Jersey residents and resulted in a record number of people enrolled in coverage,” said Commissioner Zimmerman, whose department operates the exchange. “New Jersey remains vigorously opposed to any efforts to roll back the provisions of the Affordable Care Act and to strip coverage from residents.”
If the pending reconciliation bill gains final approval, consumers would experience higher insurance costs, restricted eligibility, a shortened window to enroll in coverage, and increased red tape and paperwork required for enrollment. More than 50 percent of consumers enrolled in health insurance through Get Covered New Jersey could lose coverage in the current worst-case scenario.
Consumers enrolled in coverage through Get Covered New Jersey are hardworking residents who must purchase private health insurance because they do not have health coverage through their employer, or through programs such as Medicaid or Medicare, and who have depended on stable access to affordable coverage through the Marketplace to keep themselves and their families healthy.
Commissioner Zimmerman joined other leaders of State-based Health Insurance Marketplaces in two letters to the House and Senate leaders warning of the detrimental impact of the House reconciliation bill package. The recent letter noted: “Americans will experience higher costs through new, onerous barriers that keep people from accessing tax credits for their health insurance in real time. Marketplace consumers already undergo rigorous processes to verify their eligibility for premium tax credits, backed by federal and state data sources. New requirements would impose extraordinary new bureaucratic burdens on consumers, putting millions at risk of losing affordable coverage simply because they could not meet excessive paperwork requirements.”
The reconciliation package approved by the House also fails to extend enhanced premium tax credits, which expire at the end of the year and have been key to making health care affordable for individuals and families. Without this extension, New Jerseyans could lose more than half a billion dollars in federal support, which has been key to making health care affordable for individuals and families. With these tax credits, nine in 10 New Jerseyans currently enrolled through Get Covered New Jersey receive financial assistance. Nearly half of those currently receiving financial help pay $10 a month or less for coverage, compared to just 13 percent before the expansion of tax credits.
The barriers to health coverage introduced through the reconciliation bill package would result in more New Jerseyans becoming uninsured causing a cascading effect on the overall health care system in the state. Hospitals and other providers would face increased demand for uncompensated care, which would exacerbate financial strain on these facilities.
On June 20, 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a new rule that contains many of the proposed changes in the legislation before Congress. The CMS rule will increase barriers to marketplace coverage for residents, leading to the loss of coverage for New Jerseyans. In April, the Department submitted a comment letter in response to the proposed rule change.
The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance created a fact sheet that further explains the impact of the Congressional reconciliation bill package on New Jerseyans statewide. |
