New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has struck $25 million in state funding — and $25 million in matching federal funding — from hospitals' charity care fund in the state's fiscal year 2017 budget, reports NJ Spotlight.
Using his line-item veto powers, Gov. Christie made cuts to public health and welfare funding just before the July 1 budget deadline. In addition to the $50 million cut from the state's charity care pool, which is distributed among New Jersey's 72 hospitals to help pay for the uninsured, $9.6 million in grants to Newark (N.J.) Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton were cut.
In response, the New Jersey Department of Health has revised the formula that determines charity care funding distribution between hospitals. The new formula is designed to benefit hospitals that provide the highest relative charity care percentages and safety-net hospitals that provide care in the lowest income communities, reports Cape May County Herald.
The proposed FY 2017 hospital funding distribution for charity care can be accessed here.
Other healthcare programs that fell victim to Gov. Christies' line-item veto include:
- $5 million from public health programs
- $5 million from a Zika training program for local health officials
- $4 million from addiction treatment programs