State lawmakers advanced Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s pick to lead New Jersey’s largest and most costly government department, an agency tasked with responding to massive federal policy changes around Medicaid and other social service programs.
On Thursday, the state Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Dr. Stephen Cha as commissioner of the Department of Human Services, which has more than 7,000 employees and a $33.5 billion budget this year. The department oversees NJ Family Care, the state Medicaid program; mental health and addiction services; programs for people with disabilities; food and emergency assistance initiatives; and a host of other social welfare work.
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Cha, a primary care doctor, previously worked at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, led the Biden administration’s response to the infant formula shortage in 2022, and served as a chief medical officer at United Health. He also worked volunteering at a homeless shelter for more than a decade, where he saw the impact Medicaid and other services had on people’s lives, he told lawmakers Thursday.
“As you all know, the rapid change in federal policies and funding is creating incredible challenges for the people we serve,” Cha told committee members.
His nomination must now be approved by the full Senate.
The federal bill signed by President Trump in July that calls for the myriad changes to Medicaid is known as HR1. Experts warn these changes will likely force more than 300,000 New Jerseyans out of the state and federally funded Medicaid program and could, in the coming years, cost the state as much as $3 billion annually in lost federal funds, money that supports hospitals and outpatient care.
Cha said Thursday the bill “was not our choice here in New Jersey.”
“But how we respond to these challenges is our choice. And we cannot simply continue as is. We have to evolve together to meet these challenges,” he said.
Cha, who graduated from Brown University and Yale School of Medicine, said his priority in the first six months will be improving the systems needed to keep people from “falling off” the Medicaid program.
“We need to help people get past the red tape,” he said. “We need to keep people who are eligible in the program.”
Several senators said they expected to work closely with Cha during the upcoming budget season, particularly on spending for Medicaid. The state has committed $25.5 billion this year for the program, which covers 1.8 million residents, of which $15 billion comes from federal sources.
Sen. Michael Testa (R-Cumberland) said the Department of Human Services is “sure to be ground zero for this year’s budget debate.”
Testa and Sen. Kristin Corrado (R-Passaic) asked for more details around Cover All Kids, the state-funded effort to insure Medicaid-eligible children, regardless of their immigration status. Cha said the program makes sense to him as a physician and helps hospitals comply with laws requiring them to treat patients in need.
Corrado also asked Cha, who now lives in the Washington, D.C., area, when he was moving to New Jersey. Cha said it depends a bit on his wife, a social worker who is winding things down with clients, but he hopes to resettle here within the next month.
Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), who chairs the state Senate budget committee, asked Cha if he was also willing to take a broader look at the Medicaid program and what it funds. Sarlo has in the past raised concerns about the growing cost and scope of the program, which lawmakers have expanded over the years with mandates to cover specific services and treatments.
“Are you willing to take that deep dive, regarding what’s covered and what’s not?” Sarlo said.
Cha agreed that after getting through the initial push to protect coverage for those who are eligible, there would be time to have “some hard conversations about what this does look like.”
There was at least one moment of levity on Thursday when Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) asked Cha if he planned to appear in any workout videos, an apparent reference to a recent social media post by federal Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and musician Kid Rock in which the two shirtless men ride a stationary bike and visit a sauna.
“No,” Cha said. “My shirt stays on.”
“That was the right answer,” Smith said.
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