Sept. 25, 2024: Statement of Cathy Bennett, President and CEO, New Jersey Hospital Association, on today’s release from the Health Care Affordability, Responsibility, and[...]

The New Jersey Hospital Association is committed to ensuring high quality, affordable care for every New Jerseyan. The healthcare industry voluntarily joined the effort to address affordability through Governor Murphy's Health Care Affordability, Responsibility, and Transparency (HART) Program, and we appreciate the opportunity to participate in this critically important conversation.

We are doing our part. Our hospitals and health systems continue to provide safe and high value care for every patient that we see. And, despite facing the same inflationary increases as every other individual and industry in our country, due to the herculean efforts of our hospital leaders, healthcare inflation was 1.9% lower than the Consumer Price Index through August 2024.

It is critical that we join together to focus on the drivers of rising health care costs. A recent Commonwealth Fund report compared healthcare spending in the United States to other countries. More than 30% of excess U.S. health spending is related to insurance bureaucracy -that's an extra 15% for the administrative costs of the for-profit insurance industry, plus another 15% in administrative costs borne by providers for activities like getting prior authorizations for care and getting reimbursed for that insurance-approved care.

NJHA is deeply invested in the communities we serve throughout New Jersey, and we look forward to working with state leaders to fill the gaps in the benchmark report.