USA TODAY Network New Jersey Editorial Board: Tom Kean Jr. Should be “Held Accountable at the Ballot Box” for Gutting Medicaid

The USA TODAY Network New Jersey Editorial Board writes that Kean Jr.’s vote “spells disaster for health care in New Jersey” and will be “devastating for the Garden State,” that he has “deflected from acknowledging its impacts on health care coverage for New Jersey residents,” and that he “should be prepared to be held accountable at the ballot box” by voters next November.

Read the blistering editorial for yourself:

• The so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill” — the federal budget package narrowly passed by both houses of Congress before it was signed by President Donald Trump on July 4 — spells disaster for health care in New Jersey.
• The impacts of those cuts are devastating for the Garden State — and many of its most vulnerable residents in particular.
• Consider: More than 350,000 New Jersey residents, according to the state Department of Human Services, are likely to lose health care coverage as significant cuts to Medicaid are expected to detrimentally affect NJ FamilyCare, the state-run program that administers federal health benefits. That means 1 in 5 New Jersey residents who receive Medicaid benefits will lose their coverage.
• Trenton lawmakers, who have watched congressional debate over Medicaid funding in Washington, D.C., with understandable anxiety all spring, have already said New Jersey’s state coffers will not be able to mitigate the cuts to Garden State residents’ Medicaid coverage.
• New Jersey hospitals and public health institutions, meanwhile, are anticipating more than $3.3 billion annually in funding cuts. The federal budget package also cuts $360 million a year in aid to the state budget due to new restrictions.
• Also forthcoming are significant cuts to SNAP, the former food stamp program, which is relied on by 800,000 New Jersey residents — more than 60% of whom are children or seniors. New Jersey will need to raise as much as $300 million to keep the program afloat; counties are likely to face a $78 million funding gap.
• As the USA TODAY Network New Jersey reported on July 3, hospital officials, public health advocates and some New Jersey public officials offered grim reactions to the prospect of massive cuts to Medicaid benefits.
• The bill represents “a devastating step backward,” said Cathy Bennett, CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association.
• “Hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans will lose their health care coverage,” she said. “Further consequences include health care job losses, service cuts, emergency department overcrowding and the very real risk of hospital closures — jeopardizing access to care for everyone, not just Medicaid recipients.”
• Who can New Jersey residents hold accountable for these harmful cuts?
• New Jersey’s three Republican congressmen all voted for Trump’s spending and tax cut package. They are:
  • Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who represents the 7th Congressional District.
  • Rep. Chris Smith, who represents the 4th Congressional District.
  • Rep. Jeff Van Drew, who represents the 2nd Congressional District.
• Each issued a statement hailing the Trump package’s passage — and each deflected from acknowledging its impacts on health care coverage for New Jersey residents.
• The thousands upon thousands of New Jersey residents who begin this week with deep uncertainty about how they will meet their health care needs should surely have questions and concerns about those Republican assertions.
• Kean, Smith and Van Drew should be ready to face those questions and concerns — and we strongly encourage our readers to place calls and send letters to their offices now. Next year, as these congressmen pursue reelection, they should be prepared to be held accountable at the ballot box, too.

###