“New Jersey has become a national leader in ensuring that its children have a healthy start in life," Governor Corzine said. “Through this Express Lane option, we are moving forward in our goal to enroll every eligible child.”
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has praised New Jersey for its aggressive enrollment strategy and said Governor Corzine has set the standard for efforts to cover more children to ensure they get the care they need. The Obama Administration has committed an additional $286 million for NJ FamilyCare as part of $6 billion in new federal Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) funding.
“In the three mailings to date, 172,000 applications have been sent with almost 10,000 of the easy enrollment forms returned,” said DHS Commissioner Jennifer Velez. “And while we’re discovering that some children have since been insured through employer-based plans or are too old to qualify, we’ve enrolled almost 1,500 children, many in as few as three weeks.”
NJ FamilyCare is a free or low-cost program for income-eligible families. For instance, a family of four earning up to $77,175 (or 350 percent of the federal poverty level) can qualify to insure their children for about $130 a month in the state- and federally-funded program. Presently, more than 588,679 children and 237,565 adults are enrolled in NJ FamilyCare.
NJ FamilyCare ADVANTAGE is a “buy-in” program for families earning more than 350 percent of the federal poverty level. The maximum monthly premium is $411 for a family with three or more children.
Families, whose health insurance status may have changed since filing their 2008 returns, also are encouraged to apply using the basic one-page NJ FamilyCare application. For more information on the NJ FamilyCare programs, call 1-800-701-0710 or visit www.njfamilycare.org.
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