(TRENTON) — Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin (D-Essex), a member of the Assembly Budget Committee, issued a multimedia package Monday on her dismay at the continued lack of funding for women’s health care in the governor’s proposed FY 2015 state budget.
Pintor Marin noted that for the fifth straight year, the governor’s budget has failed to include funding for women’s health care, which, at $7.5 million, represents less than one tenth of one percent of the proposed budget’s $34.4 billion price tag.
The multimedia package consists of a video of Pintor Marin’s commentary and audio and a transcript of same.
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 Pintor Marin’s comments is appended below:
Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin (D-Essex):
“It’s disappointing to me because we are in 2014, women are up to par with what men do and I think that not having health care is really extremely disappointing and concerning. It’s not an issue that we should be debating about. It should be an issue that’s really not an issue, even. It should just be in the budget.
“It’s quite scary to see that all the issues that women have been going through the past couple of years, you know, with diagnosis of breast cancer, ovarian, and so on and so forth, and for there not to just be a small amount in the budget for health care for women is disturbing.
“Preventative care is really the key in lowering the cost of insurance as a whole, so if $7.5 million is not in the budget for women’s preventative health care, it’s a big issue because in the long run, it’s going to end up costing the state more money.”