Chris Christie, Governor, New Jersey, ramped up his attacks on his state’s largest health insurer by claiming that it “brazenly” failed its poorest residents by mishandling Medicaid claims and launching an attack against a company that he seeks to help finance an opioids campaign.
While Christie highlighted $16 million in fines against Horizon Blue Cross in a news conference, his months-long campaign to get Horizon to tap into its surplus for $300 million to finance opioid addiction treatment has also become tied in with larger budget negotiations ahead of an imminent deadline next Friday.
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Lawmakers note that discussions over Horizon and another proposal by Christie to dedicate lottery revenue to the state’s public workers’ pensions are being considered as part of a potential deal that will include a school funding overhaul proposed by Democratic lawmakers.
The proposed budget is one of Christie’s final hopes to have lawmakers negotiate on issues that he is passionate about before he leaves office in January, according to the 6ABC news website.
At present, lawmakers have not taken up the Horizon or lottery proposals, since they seek his signature over a new school funding plan, while Gary Schaer, Democratic Assemblyman and budget chairman, said amid a private meeting of Assembly Democrats that the prospect of making a deal could be possible.
Christie mentioned that the state Department of Human Services and the insurance commission has cited Horizon for improperly handling hundreds of thousands of Medicaid claims, triggering backlogs and impacting residents since 2015. Christie said he could not tell if anyone was actually hurt, and Horizon countered by saying that it is not aware of any members impacted “in any way.”
Christie suggested that the violations justify the proposal of his passage. The proposal features “transparency” provisions to ask Horizon to present further information online and include spots for public members on the board.
“Horizon just brazenly failed their members and the citizens of New Jersey. What their multi-million dollar lobbyists and secretive management team worked to make sure we wouldn’t notice is that Horizon has been cited repeatedly,” Christie stated.
Kevin McArdle, spokesman, Horizon, said that the company has made “substantial progress” on the issues and was “blindsided” by Christie’s news conference that comes just over a week before the fiscal year’s end when the Republican governor and Democrat-led Legislature must enact a new budget.
“His comments strongly suggest that this is further retaliation for Horizon’s unwillingness to submit to his demand for $300 million from the reserves we hold to protect our members and an abuse of power,” McArdle said.
Christie responded by saying that his comments could “hardly” be classified as retaliatory since violations triggered his February proposal to use Horizon’s surplus.
The governor’s proposal has come under wider attack as Steve Forbes, publisher and businessman, tweeted that the idea is “bullying.”
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