While New Jersey has a robust health care sector, Joel Cantor of Rutgers’ Center for State Health Policy, tells NJ Today’s Managing Editor Mike Schneider the state also has one of the costliest and inefficient systems in the country.
While the cost of living is high across the board in this state, Cantor says New Jerseyans tend to use more health care in general.
“A national study showed that New Jersey is top in in the number of people who see 10 or more specialists in the last 6 months of life and I could go on there’s more statistics like that its a very fragmented system poor coordination of care between the hospital and home therefore patients are likely to come back for readmission when it could have been avoided.”
WATCH VIDEO:
There are plenty of examples of efficient health care systems in the country, he says, citing to one across the Delaware River.
“In Pennsylvania, the Geisinger Health System is known for highly coordinated, well managed care.
With the Affordable Care Act going into effect soon, Cantor says there is real concern that the current system will be able to support all the people the who will have to covered under the new law.
“There’s real concern that there will be enough primary care physicians to take care of them particularly low income vulnerable populations that have a lot of needs that haven’t had good access before,” Cantor said, adding that nurse practitioners will also be in great demand.
Recently, Gov. Christie vetoed a bill that would allow New Jersey to set up and run its own health exchange. But Cantor points out that New Jersey is one of 19 states to let the federal government take the initiative.
“The governor has until February to decide whether they want to take on certain components of the exchange but we will have more people with coverage regardless of whether the federal government or the state runs the exchange.”
According to Cantor, the rising cost of health care is, by far, the single, biggest challenge facing health care, saying “that’s what drives high health insurance premiums that’s what puts health care coverage out of reach for many small businesses.”
While all the talk in Washington, D.C. has been on the fiscal cliff, Cantor says that Medicare really is “the number one, if not one of the top contributors, to our fiscal problems in Washington,” adding that Medicare costs have gone up to half trillion dollars a year.