Recent Studies Examine State of Health Care in New Jersey

NJBIZ, Oct 15, 2007

Industry Report

TWO STUDIES released in quick succession early this month focused on chronic diseases, their economic impact and the quality of health care in New Jersey.

If current disease trends continue unchecked for another 15 years, the state faces $94 billion in lost productivity by 2023, according to the Milken Institute, an economic policy think tank founded by 1980s "junk bond king" Michael Milken in Santa Monica, Calif. Yet, half the people polled by Rutgers University felt health care in the state needs fundamental change, and another two-thirds worry about its affordability.

"The depth of state residents' discontent with New Jersey health care and the desire for policy action is striking," says Joel Cantor, director of the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy and professor of public policy. "This level of concern about health care and consensus for needed action is very rare in New Jersey," adds Cliff Zukin, Rutgers professor of public policy and the study's co-author.

Respondents to the Rutgers poll overwhelmingly urged action from policy makers, with 93 percent calling it extremely important or very important for state leaders to address rising health costs. Another 85 percent said it was extremely important or very important to address the problems posed by uninsured residents. The poll covered 1,104 adults, and was conducted between June and July of this year.

The Milken report, titled "An Unhealthy America: The Economie Burden of Chronic Disease," ranks New Jersey 32nd among the 50 states for the incidence of seven diseasescancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental disorders and pulmonary conditions. Utah had the best showing, while West Virginia had the worst.

New Jersey reported more than 4.6 million cases of the seven diseases in 2003, according to the study. Pulmonary conditions topped the list with nearly 1.3 million cases, followed by hypertension (1.14 million), mental disorders (742,000) and heart disease (589,000).

Healthier lifestyles and prevention efforts could improve those numbers, according to the report. In addition, according to the findings, with such changes the state's real gross domestic product-a measure of GDP at current pricesin 2050 could be $1,119 billion. But if disease trends stay at the current course, the state's real GDP would be reined in at $952 billion that year.

Cantor says a report that his center released last month studied 30-day hospital readmission rates (indicating chronic diseases), where the state shared the national average of 18.4 percent of all hospital patients. But he says New Jersey fared poorly against the national average on another measure that tracked the incidence of "ambulatory care sensitive conditions," such as asthma.

Cantor agrees that chronic diseases warrant a prime focus in health care reform-and coverage for the uninsured. "Diabetes education, routine hemoglobin testing and feedback from doctors are simple and comparatively inexpensive, but the uninsured don't do that like people with coverage do," he says.

E-mail to shankar_p@njbiz.com