Official Site of The State of New Jersey

The State has taken intentional steps to close health gaps and meaningfully expand access to care to build a stronger and healthier New Jersey. Investments in local health departments, mobile health services, and trusted community partnerships are helping to bring care closer to those who need it most and building trust in health care institutions.

Strengthening Public Health Systems

• Through the federal Public Health Infrastructure Grant, the New jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) is building internal infrastructure to integrate health equity analysis in program designs, growing the Office of Women’s Health and Office of Minority and Multicultural Health, and strengthening the workforce capacity of local health departments.
• The NJDOH Local Public Health Liaison Program facilitates quick resolution of concerns from Local Health Departments (LHDs)—from routine issues handled within a day to complex challenges requiring cross-departmental coordination. When local health departments raised concerns about COVID-19 vaccination access for young children and homebound populations, the State responded by providing state-funded vaccines. 

Facilitating Affordable Access to Care

• NJ FamilyCare is the State’s largest insurer and half of all kids in the Garden State access health care through this program, which provides a generous array of benefits. Cover All Kids provides coverage for all income-eligible children under 19 years with household incomes less than 350% of the federal poverty limit. The phased rollout of the program under P.L. 2021, c.132 has included elimination of premiums and waiting period as well as enhancing outreach initiatives.
• Since its launch in 2020, Get Covered New Jersey, the State’s Official Health Insurance Marketplace, has enabled hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans to secure health coverage and ensure their medical needs are met. The Department of Banking and Insurance annually funds community organizations to serve as Navigators who help current enrollees and connect uninsured New Jersey residents to health coverage. Free help is also available from New Jersey-licensed Brokers who are trained and certified by Get Covered New Jersey.
• The State annually directs $32 million through the Uncompensated Care Fund to Federally-Qualified Health Centers and look-alikes to reimburse care provided to underinsured, uninsured, and undocumented residents with incomes at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. These funds have been used to support primary care, mental health, and dental health services. An additional $12 million is being deployed in Fiscal Year 2026 to further stabilize these safety-net providers. Many clinics operate extended weekday and weekend hours, helping reduce barriers to care for working families.

Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities

• New Jersey established the COVID-19 Pandemic Task Force on Racial and Health Disparities to examine the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the State’s minority and marginalized communities. The Task Force offered 84 recommendations to address historical and systemic inequities, to improve data systems, to strengthen health communications, to diversity health care workforces, and to address mental health care gaps.
• New Jersey hospitals and laboratories expanded data collection to include patients’ sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) as well as race and ethnicity to better understand and address health disparities.  By collecting more inclusive data and ensuring providers receive cultural competency trainings, New Jersey providers are more equipped to serve New Jersey’s diverse population and the State can better address health disparities.
• Established a first-of-its-kind Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Authority and building a Maternal and Infant Health Innovation and Research Center to continue addressing New Jersey’s maternal and infant health crisis for generations to come.
• NJDOH and partner programs have prioritized inclusive communications by featuring diverse individuals (such as Hispanic and multilingual healthcare workers) in public awareness campaigns. They have integrated culturally relevant visuals and messaging across social media, environmental health materials, and family outreach videos, ensuring images and languages reflect the communities served.

Reaching Historically Underserved Communities

• Colette Lamothe-Galette Community Health Worker Institute provides free training to enable trusted community members to become community health workers (CHWs)—providing vaccination education, health literacy, and health care navigation services to their networks.
• NJDOH and its partners continue to expand grassroots outreach by deploying CHWs, forming Memorandums of Agreement with local organizations, and supporting community based organizations (CBOs), faith based organizations (FBOs), and Federally-Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Through strategies like door-to-door canvassing, phone/text outreach, and partnerships with libraries, food pantries, and local health systems, NJDOH aims to connect underserved populations with prevention and treatment tools.
• To reach those in geographically or structurally underserved areas, NJDOH programs like the Rapid Mobile Response Team, local health departments, and other community health care partners have deployed mobile clinics and pop-up services. These efforts aim to bring vaccinations, screenings, and routine care to settings like correctional facilities, shelters, migrant worker housing, senior living communities, and homebound individuals. 
• The State is increasingly making vital documents and services available in non-English languages to better serve those with limited English proficiency. For example, NJDOH has strengthened multilingual communication by reviewing documents with health literacy principles and expanding translation efforts.
• New Jersey was awarded over $147 million annually—up to $735 million over the next five years—in federal funding under the Rural Health Transformation Program to grow New Jersey’s rural health care workforce, strengthen innovative partnerships, and modernize prevention and treatment.

Tackling the Youth Mental Health Crisis

• Governor Murphy leveraged the National Governor’s Association’s Chair Initiative to focus on Strengthening Youth Mental Health nationwide and issuing New Jersey’s Youth Mental Health Strategic Plan to build resilience, reduce stigma, ensure quality care access, and support caregivers.
• The State rebalanced Children’s System of Care rates for the first time in 15 years to significantly invest in youth mental health supports and treatment.
• The New Jersey Statewide Student Support Services (NJ4S) was launched in September 2023, using a hub-and-spoke model to provide prevention and intervention supports to students, families, and school staff throughout the state. NJ4S will receive $43 million in Fiscal Year 2026 to provide a variety of large group, small group, and individual services in schools and community settings. 
• In December 2024, Governor Murphy appropriated $1 million to provide a grant to the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute to study and map mental health care resources for children in New Jersey. The completed study is expected to inform future investments in the continuum of care of youth mental health supports and to help fill any gaps in services.

Promoting Age-Friendly and Disability-Inclusive Communities

• Register Ready, New Jersey’s confidential Special Needs Registry for Disasters, allows New Jersey residents with disabilities or access and functional needs and their families, friends and associates an opportunity to provide information to emergency response agencies. This helps emergency responders better plan to serve them in a disaster or other emergency if evacuations are ordered.
• Since the COVID-19 pandemic, New Jersey became an AARP-designated Age-Friendly State, issued the New Jersey Age-Friendly Blueprint through the Age-Friendly Advisory Council, and distributed $ Age-Friendly community grants, which implement strategies and best practices to improve New Jersey’s communities for older adults and support aging in place.
• NJDHS has increased eligibility for the Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Aged and Disabled (PAAD) and Senior Gold programs to support approximately 150,000 seniors and individuals with disabilities.

Addressing Persistent Health Crises

• Leading with public health and leveraging a whole-of-government strategy like the COVID-19 pandemic response, New Jersey is starting to turn the tide in the opioid epidemic. The State of New Jersey has allocated more than $324 million in state-level opioid settlement resources toward prevention, treatment, recovery, and community supports. The State is deploying harm reduction services statewide, expanding treatment infrastructure, reducing barriers to care, and enhancing services that improve long-term stability and health for residents.

• Continue to consider how to implement COVID-19 Pandemic Task Force on Racial and Health Disparities findings.
• Bring prevention tools to communities, such as through the Community Vaccination Program that supports FQHCs, non-profits, local health departments, and other organizations working in high-risk communities.
• Continue to consider how to reduce barriers to affordable, accessible, trusted health care services.