The leader of the New Jersey Senate says lawmakers will hold a hearing to examine insurance products being offering by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.
Senate President Steve Sweeney says he wants to make sure insurance companies aren’t making enormous profits at the expense of quality health care for consumers.
“Horizon dominates the market right now. They have more than 50% of the market and they’re coming out with another product to deal with Medicare. And we want to know the impacts of these products for consumers and hospitals.”
Sweeney says lawmakers are starting with Horizon, but their examination is not limited to that company.
“It’s a question of cost, options, and making sure that as they introduce these new products that we wholly understand what the impacts are to the consumer and to the hospitals that we’re dealing with. We need to control health care costs. But we also have to make sure that insurance companies aren’t profiteering at the same time.”
A date for the hearing has not been set. It’s expected early in next year’s legislative session.