NJ Single Payer Medicare for All would provide first-rate health care for all New Jerseyans and would save the state, local municipalities, businesses and individuals, billions of dollars. It is the single change most able to transform this state.

There is a growing awareness in America that the health care we receive is managed by an unnecessary and ridiculously expensive middle-manager — the health insurance industry. As long as that industry is calling the shots Americans will be paying far too much for our health care. NJ Single Payer Improved and Expanded Medicare is about Care, not Insurance. The cost of the state of NJ running its own health care program is projected to bring down costs to employers, and to employees, in dramatic ways. After eliminating insurance payments, an increase in payroll taxes (6% on the employer side, 2% on the employee) could put this program into effect immediately. This plan would have no deductibles, no co-pays, no premiums and would mean that we’d stop differentiating the care offered to public workers, wall street bankers and the poorest of the poor. Good health care is a right, not a benefit.

Many in New Jersey live in fear of getting sick, not because they’re afraid of getting sick, but because you’re afraid of the cost of getting sick. It’s ridiculous for the state to be economically-sick because we’re throwing money away to what is an entirely unnecessary industry that overcharges many of us and is cost prohibitive to others. The cost savings related to NJ Single Payer would allow us to: Fix the public workers and teachers pension problem as state pensions are currently linked with health insurance expenses, reduce municipal/school budgets, lower property taxes, make it easier for business to transition to $15/minimum wage and free people up for job-mobility.

To read more about the need for Medicare-for-all, click here or visit my website.