Latino Action Network Critical of Governor Christie’s Choice to Dismantle FamilyCare

The Latino Action Network [LAN] today denounced the latest attack by Governor Chris Christie on New Jersey’s FamilyCare program. This service offers coverage to working families who are above the income levels permitted by Medicaid but whose family income does not allow them to buy health insurance on the open market. 

Latino Action Network Critical of

Governor Christie’s Choice to Dismantle FamilyCare

For Immediate Release: May 23, 2011

Frank Argote-Freyre, Chair – 908-670-0552

Daniel Santo Pietro, Chair, Public Policy Committee – 732-496-9628

            The Latino Action Network [LAN] today denounced the latest attack by Governor Chris Christie on New Jersey’s FamilyCare program. This service offers coverage to working families who are above the income levels permitted by Medicaid but whose family income does not allow them to buy health insurance on the open market.

            “The corporate coddling, low-income bashing policies of Governor Christie are obvious once again in this year’s proposed budget,” said Frank Argote-Freyre, President of the Latino Action Network.  “The latest Christie proposal all but eliminates FamilyCare for working parents. This is more of the same cruel social policy we have come to expect from this governor.”

Governor Christie started dismantling FamilyCare last year when he arbitrarily removed 13,000 adult immigrants from FamilyCare, and then lowered eligibility for a family of four from $36,000 to $25,000 annual income barring about 50,000 more parents.  Earlier this month, the Christie Administration announced that under the latest budget proposal for Medicaid only parents earning about five thousand dollars a year will be eligible thereby eliminating working parents.

“The Governor is following a pattern of refusing to invest state money that the federal government more than matches to extend health services to working people,” said Daniel Santo Pietro, chair of the LAN Public Policy Committee. “Latinos will be disproportionately affected.  In the past Latino social service agencies, whose funding the Governor also has cut dramatically, made a concerted effort to enroll families only to see them eliminated from the program.  Latinos have the highest rates of families living without coverage in New Jersey—about 40%.”

If the budget is not modified, over a hundred thousand parents will likely be cut from the program.  Thousands of children are sure to follow once their parents lose coverage. The result is that New Jersey will lose millions in federal funding, and these working families will likely resort to emergency rooms for healthcare putting greater pressure on local hospitals, who do not have sufficient Charity Care funds to attend to their current population.  The Governor’s moves also undermine the federal healthcare reform law that in 2014 expects to expand Medicaid and create insurance exchanges to provide vehicles for nearly everyone to get health coverage.

Earlier this year, the LAN joined a lawsuit against the Christie Administration challenging last year’s cuts to FamilyCare. The Latino Action Network was founded in 2009 to fight for political empowerment and defend civil rights.

A Plan for New Jersey Supreme Court Without Diversity An Injustice

The “deal” announced yesterday by Governor Chris Christie and Senate President Steve Sweeney would turn back the clock and ensure that New Jersey’s Supreme Court lacks racial and ethnic diversity — even as New Jersey’s Latino, African-American, and Asian-American populations continue to grow and make up over 40 percent of the state’s population.

A Plan for New Jersey Supreme Court Without Diversity An Injustice

For Immediate Release: May 3, 2011

Contacts:

Frank Argote-Freyre, President – 908-670-0552

Christian Estevez, Executive Vice President – 973-418-7012

The “deal” announced yesterday by Governor Chris Christie and Senate President Steve Sweeney would turn back the clock and ensure that New Jersey’s Supreme Court lacks racial and ethnic diversity — even as New Jersey’s Latino, African-American, and Asian-American populations continue to grow and make up over 40 percent of the state’s population.

“New Jersey’s Supreme Court should represent all of the people. This so-called deal would create a Supreme Court that makes important decisions impacting communities of color — without any representation from any of those communities,” said Frank Argote-Freyre, President of the Latino Action Network. “It erases hard-fought victories by the Latino and African-American communities to ensure representation on the Court.”

New Jersey, according to the 2010 Census, has the twelfth-highest percentage of people of color of any state, with Latinos, African-Americans, and Asian-Americans making up 40.7 percent of the state's population. Latinos are the largest minority group in New Jersey and accounted for the vast majority of population growth in New Jersey over the last decade.

Of the eleven states with higher percentages of people of color than New Jersey, all except Arizona have at least one sitting African-American, Latino, or Asian-American Supreme Court justice, according to a review of judicial websites in those states.  Of the 21 other states that are less than 70 percent white, 17 have at least one sitting African-American, Latino, or Asian-American Supreme Court justice. 

"With this move, New Jersey would go to the bottom of the pack, along with notoriously racially divided states like Arizona, in judicial diversity," Argote-Freyre said. "We urge the Senate to reject this deal that turns back the clock on representation of all New Jerseyans and instead work with Gov. Christie to replace Justice Rivera-Soto with another Latino justice."

New Jersey’s seven person Supreme Court had an African-American justice from 1994-2010, first Justice James H. Coleman, Jr., and then Justice John E. Wallace, Jr. Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto, who became the first Latino justice in 2004, would be replaced by Anne Patterson in the proposed deal.

The Latino Action Network is a broad, statewide coalition of Latino organizations devoted to civil rights and political empowerment.