Getting the Uninsured Covered Makes Good Economic Sense

By Jeff Scheininger, President, Flexline/U.S. Brass & Copper Corp. and Chairman, Platform for Progress Health Care Initiative

Roughly 1.109 million people in New Jersey do not have insurance. While that’s a large number, the problem is not beyond solving. 

An analysis of those million-plus people reveals that 265,000 were eligible for public insurance programs, 356,000 had an income of $50,000 per year or more, 200,000 were considered short-term uninsured, such as individuals between jobs, and 288,000 individuals were truly uninsured. 

This analysis provides us the tools to help solve this problem. We should concentrate on getting those eligible for public insurance programs enrolled and encourage those with the financial means to obtain coverage to do so. Many in the Legislature have already taken steps to expand coverage opportunities for the uninsured, but more needs to be done. 

Why is this important? Each uninsured person costs our state, our businesses and our taxpayers more money than health insurance would cost for these individuals. The uninsured neglect their health care needs and typically end up with more expensive health problems later. 

By not regularly seeking preventative care, the uninsured are forced to seek urgent care in expensive settings such as emergency rooms, where they pay the highest cost for the services rendered. For those paying themselves, it creates a terrific strain. For those relying on society to pay, it places an additional financial burden on the health care system. 

Health care increases are driving up everything from your town’s school budgets, and therefore your property taxes, to the cost of your garbage pickup and water bills. In my own company, a small 18-person manufacturing company, half of my pretax company profits go to fund health insurance costs. Statewide, the average annual cost of employment-based health insurance for family coverage in 2003 was $10,168 – higher than the average New Jersey property tax bill. 

Inefficiencies in the health care system are draining our resources and endangering our lives. According to Public Citizen Congress Watch, an estimated 2,930 preventable deaths in 2003 were due to medical errors in New Jersey alone. These deaths, and the terrible personal and systemic toll they take, are unnecessary and must be corrected. Technologies exist to lower this number dramatically and should be implemented. 

Since the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce began its Platform for Progress campaign and began to focus on health care as one of six key issues affecting our state, we have been alarmed by this growing problem. We must get our state’s best and brightest to focus on this issue.

May 2006