SIMONSEN CALLS FOR OVERSIGHT HEARING ON SOARING NEW JERSEY HEALTH CARE COSTS
TRENTON, N.J. – With health insurance premiums continuing to climb for families, small businesses and public employees across New Jersey, Assemblyman Erik Simonsen is calling for the Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee to hold a public hearing examining what is driving the increases and where New Jerseyans' health care dollars are going.
"New Jerseyans are getting crushed by the rising cost of health care," said Simonsen. "We know what families and employers are being asked to pay. What we need to know is why."
Premiums in New Jersey's individual health insurance market increased an average of 16.6 percent in 2026, while premiums in the state's small-employer market increased an average of 16.5 percent, according to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance.
The issue has taken on renewed urgency in Trenton. This week, the Sherrill administration announced an agreement with 17 state employee unions to freeze increases in employee health benefit contribution rates for 2027 while establishing a working group to examine reforms to the State Health Benefits Program.
Simonsen said the state's acknowledgment of structural problems within its own health benefits system underscores the need for broader legislative oversight of health care costs.
"This isn't just a problem for state employees. It's a problem for the family buying coverage, the small business trying to provide benefits and the taxpayers ultimately paying the government's health care bills," Simonsen said. "A working group looking at one state program is a start. The Legislature should be asking the bigger question: Why does health care keep getting more expensive in New Jersey?"
Simonsen, a member of the Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee, is calling for a hearing that brings insurance carriers, hospitals and health systems, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacy benefit managers, state regulators and independent experts before the committee.
The hearing should examine how much rising insurance premiums are being driven by hospital and medical prices, prescription drugs, utilization, administrative expenses, insurance costs and margins, as well as the impact of state mandates, regulations and fees.
New Jersey's own Department of Health has found that health care spending increases are occurring across insurance markets, service categories and nearly all carriers and providers studied.
