Statement: CWA Blasts Gov. Murphy for Staggering 37% Increase to Health Costs for Working Families in Public Service

For release July 9, 2025
Contact: Anna-Marta Visky ([email protected]), CWA, 202-434-1168

CWA Blasts Gov. Murphy for Staggering 37% Increase to Health Costs for Working Families in Public Service

TRENTON, N.J. – Today, the State Health Benefits Program Commission (SHBP) proposed increases to the rates that working families pay for healthcare premiums of 37% for local government workers and 19.7% for state government workers. These drastic rate increases exacerbate an ongoing affordability crisis for public workers who are already shouldering $100 million in budget cuts to their healthcare benefits.

Billy Gallagher, Assistant to CWA District 1 Vice President Trainor, released the following statement:

The Murphy administration continues to side with health insurance CEOs and political donors; and our local public servants and taxpayers are the collateral damage. The administration created the SHBP premium rate disaster through mismanagement and a lack of will to rein in the insurance companies and PBMs that are gouging us. In conjunction with the deplorable state budget, which cut $100 million in healthcare benefits on the backs of public sector workers, this rate hike is a disaster for the future viability of jobs serving local governments in New Jersey.

Every day, tens of thousands of hardworking New Jerseyans go to work, serving their communities. Local government workers keep our schools open, protect children and families, provide for public health, and care for the elderly. Today’s proposed rate hike would make a staggering 112% compounded increase in premiums for local government workers since 2021. The State repeatedly has rejected, stonewalled, or slow-walked reforms that would lower costs for everyone. It continues to make public employees, especially in local government, collateral damage.

If nothing changes, our state and local governments will lose the essential workers who keep our communities running.

The Murphy administration continues to prioritize the interests of corporate donors over the well-being of New Jersey's taxpayers and public workers. It’s time for the Governor to put people over profits and work towards real solutions to the healthcare affordability crisis, not just try to shift the blame and the costs to workers.

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About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in public service, telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

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