Looming Medicaid Cuts Will Increase Already-Rising Number Of Uninsured NJ Residents, Data Shows

In 2026, thousands of New Jersey residents are anticipated to lose health insurance coverage, with those in the lowest income brackets particularly affected. Those losses will come as the number of uninsured New Jersey residents already has risen significantly, according to U.S. Census data.

The data released by the Census Bureau earlier in September shows 7.7 percent of the state’s residents did not have health insurance coverage in 2024, a 5 tenths of a percent increase from 2023, which the bureau called “statistically significant.”

The data, gathered through the American Community Survey — the annual update the Census Bureau does — shows the highest number of New Jersey residents without health insurance is among adults 19 to 64 years old, with 10.8 percent or more than 604,000 uninsured. That number rose 7 tenths of a percent from 2023 to 2024.

Among 26- to 34-year-olds, more than 147,000 residents, 13.4 percent, did not have health insurance, according to the Census Bureau.

Among children, 4.7 percent lacked health insurance coverage in 2024, with that figure up 6 tenths of a percent from 2023, according to the data.

The most impacted are those living below the poverty threshold in 2024 — an income of less than $15,060, $20,440 for two people or $25,820 for a family of three — where 17.7 percent lacked health insurance, according to the Census Bureau.

Those lacking health insurance are not limited to those who are unemployed: Nearly 10 percent of people who have jobs in New Jersey are uninsured, according to the Census Bureau. There were more than 271,000 New Jersey residents who were working full time, year-round in 2024 who were uninsured, 8.1 percent of that category, according to the bureau.

The impacts of a lack of health insurance are significant, according to KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, a policy research organization that focuses on health care issues.

People who do not have health insurance are less likely to seek care when they are ill because of the costs, a KFF analysis notes. That leads to people becoming more seriously ill and driving up the costs of care through hospitalizations that might have been avoided with earlier treatment.

Those who do seek treatment often wind up in the emergency room, where the cost of care is much more expensive. It can have a ripple effect in situations where overwhelmed emergency rooms divert patients in crisis to other hospitals, which can delay critical care — a problem that has existed for decades.

A lack of health insurance — particularly among those who work minimum-wage jobs — can lead to people coming to work sick and spreading illnesses to co-workers, which affects not only their organizations but the families of those who become sick as a result.

“Unaffordable medical bills can lead to medical debt, particularly for uninsured adults,” a KFF report on the uninsured says. “More than 6 in 10 (62%) uninsured adults report having health care debt compared to over four in ten (44%) insured adults. Uninsured adults are more likely to face negative consequences due to health care debt, such as using up savings, having difficulty paying other living expenses, or borrowing money.”

“While federal and state laws require certain hospitals to provide some level of charity care, not all eligible patients benefit from these programs,” the KFF report said. “Consequently, charity care costs represent a small share of operating expenses at many hospitals.”

A lack of health insurance impacts those seeking treatment for mental health as well physical illnesses, a critical gap at a time where the requests for mental health supports are skyrocketing, particularly among children and young adults.

New Jersey Policy Perspective called the spike in the uninsured rates alarming and said the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic about providing access had been left behind.

“Barriers to health insurance have grown worse, especially for those with the lowest incomes,” said Brittany Holom-Trundy, New Jersey Policy Perspective’s research director. “The end of Medicaid protections especially harmed families living in poverty, leaving them without coverage or access to care.”

“While New Jersey has taken important steps to improve access, such as the Cover All Kids program, these efforts have not addressed all gaps in the system,” Holom-Trundy said. “Combined with the coming federal Medicaid cuts, this data shows that the state urgently needs to expand coverage programs and ensure that all residents (regardless of age, race, gender, immigration status, disability, or employment status) have access to affordable coverage.”

More than 300,000 New Jersey residents are anticipated to lose health care coverage when the provisions of the “Big Beautiful Bill” that was passed in July in Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump.

That law significantly cuts Medicaid spending by capping how much states can collect in hospital assessment fees used to draw federal Medicaid matches, to help pay for an extension of expiring tax cuts.
Medicaid is the primary program providing comprehensive health and long-term care to 1 in 5 people in the United States and accounts for nearly $1 out of every $5 spent on health care. It is administered by states within broad federal rules and jointly funded by states and the federal government.
While advocates of the cuts say they will prevent immigrants in the country illegally from having access to Medicaid coverage, federal law already limited coverage to immigrants with a "qualified" status.

These groups include lawful permanent residents, refugees; individuals granted parole for at least one year; individuals granted asylum or related relief; certain abused spouses and children; certain victims of trafficking; Cuban and Haitian entrants; and citizens of the Freely Associated States (COFA migrants) residing in states and territories.