(TRENTON) — Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr., M.D. (D-Burlington) — the lead Assembly sponsor of legislation to create a New Jersey health benefits exchange program to provide access to affordable, quality health insurance — issued a multimedia package Thursday opining on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The video can be accessed directly via our website – www.assemblydems.com – or by clicking here.
The audio file is available upon request.
A transcript of comments from Assemblyman Conaway is appended below:
Assemblyman Herb Conaway, Jr. M.D. (D-Burlington), Assembly Health and Senior Services Chair:
“The Supreme Court acted in a conservative way to uphold a decision which was passed by supermajority in the Senate; passed by a comfortable majority in the House; and was a signature campaign promise of the Obama administration in the wake of the 2008 election.
“And I thought, and was very pleased and I think the Supreme Court Justice Roberts, with his conservative approach to judicial action respected the political and legislative process here and kept the court out of it. And so, I was very pleased to see that the individual mandate was upheld and that the health care law, really just about in its entirety, was upheld.
“And now, many states who have been sitting on the sidelines, not getting their exchanges together, such as New Jersey, will now understand that it is… the time to act is now. The time to act is now to get their exchanges in place, to get their regulatory system in place and to prepare for the time when people who are currently uninsured will gain access to insurance.”