TRENTON – Senator Richard J. Codey issued the following statement on the Governor’s announcement yesterday of draft legislation that would address the use of Horizon’s reserve funds:
“As I stated back in February, now is not the time to raid the reserves of New Jersey’s largest health insurance company.
“Standard and Poor’s has come out and warned that raiding the reserves of Horizon, which are in line with the industry, could jeopardize Horizon’s credit rating. Unfortunately, that would tax all of their membership. In our state, we’ve seen 11 downgrades on our bonds, and that’s cost our taxpayers millions of dollars. The cost is too great.
“I ask, what are the real reasons behind this? Why are we going after just Horizon?
“Today, just as in February, there still remains extreme uncertainty over what Congress intends to do with the Affordable Care Act. Each day brings new rumors and new proposals out of Washington that, if seen through, could jeopardize health care for millions in our country and hundreds of thousands here in our State.
“Under this backdrop, we need to take a timeout on this proposal and wait to see what happens at the federal level before we potentially throw the health care of our citizens into chaos with this initiative.”
