In Wake of Horizon Scandal, Unions Blast Governor’s Plan to Wreck State Health Benefits for Local Government Employees
TRENTON, N.J. – A number of unions representing public sector workers, including CWA D1, AFSCME, NJEA, NJFMBA, IFPTE Local 195 and NJSPBA are declaring firm opposition to the Governor’s proposed “SHBP Stabilization Act of 2025,” warning that the legislation would drastically cut health benefits for hundreds of thousands of active and retired local government employees while failing to reduce costs and provide strong oversight.
The statement comes in direct response to the Governor’s proposal to overhaul the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) for local government employees and retirees, in the final days of the administration.
“In the wake of the Horizon scandal, which exposed a profound lack of transparency and accountability in our state’s health care, we should be moving toward more oversight and more affordable benefits,” said Tonya Hodges, CWA District 1, Area Director New Jersey. “Instead, this proposal moves us in the exact opposite direction. We cannot support this bill in its current form and we demand the Legislature reject this bill.”
“We have long called for thoughtful, thorough reform that lowers the cost of health insurance while protecting our members’ access to the health care they need. We have demonstrated our willingness to work on this issue and are dismayed that the administration is taking an adversarial position and trying to rush this through without our input or partnership. In light of the Horizon scandal revealed this week, it is abundantly clear that one key element of any successful reform must be pricing transparency. This plan, like too many previous unilateral attempts at reform, simply shifts more costs onto working families while doing nothing to control costs or demand accountability from those who are driving those costs up for their own benefit. Labor stands together and stands ready to be a productive partner but we will not be a scapegoat,” said NJEA President Steve Beatty.
“This proposal is a disappointing attempt to reduce and raise the cost of employee benefits while doing nothing to hold health care providers and insurance companies accountable,” added State PBA President Pete Andreyev. “Until there is full transparency and access to utilization data and a full audit of Horizons management of the SHBP is mandated we can’t begin to discuss changes to the SHBP.”
“This bill is an insurance executive’s dream! At a time when Horizon just agreed to pay $100 million for overcharging on SHBP claims, the Murphy Administration is once again siding with insurance companies and hospital executives instead of with taxpayers and public servants. This bill does nothing to get at the root cause of the explosion in healthcare costs under the Murphy Administration, and does nothing to address transparency, accountability, and affordability. It simply demonstrates just how inept the Murphy Administration is when it comes to healthcare,” said Steve Tully, Executive Director of AFSCME.
“The NJFMBA had a very open conversation with the Murphy Administration in regard to these proposed legislative changes. We expressed our real concerns on key points, most importantly our members’ right to collectively bargaining,” said Eddy Donnelly, President of NJFMBA. “This proposal is not the answer to shoring up the SHPB while continuing to provide stable health care to our members,” concluded Donnelly.
The unions outlined several critical failures in the proposal:
Statutorily Inferior Health Plans: The bill eliminates all current health plans and replaces them with new, significantly worse options. It mandates that a new High Deductible Plan be at least 10% less valuable than the other proposed plans, which themselves feature higher deductibles, copays, and out-of-pocket costs. “This bill doesn’t just make plans worse; it statutorily requires that they are bad and stay bad,” the unions said.
Unilateral State Control, No Real Representation: The proposed restructuring of the SHBP Commission consolidates authority under the State Treasurer and grants overwhelming control to state management appointees. “This top-down approach ignores the needs of the local employers and employees who are directly impacted and does nothing to ensure real governance. The State has not managed the plan well on its own so far, so we need more balance, representation, and managers willing to negotiate tougher with the insurance carriers and PBMs,” the unions stated.
Perpetuating Lack of Transparency: The coalition expressed alarm that the proposal includes no meaningful transparency measures, despite recent scandals. “After Horizon, the public deserves more oversight, not less. This bill fails that basic test and risks a repeat of the very problems we are trying to solve.”
The unions acknowledged that the bill’s one-time allocation of $260 million for premium stabilization is an essential step to avert a catastrophic rate hike for local government members. However, they argued this short-term relief does not justify the long-term damage.
The unions oppose the bill in its current form and called on lawmakers to collaborate on a solution that provides both financial stability and the quality, transparent health benefits that public servants have earned.