The ObamaCare individual mandate is gone, so New Jersey just made its own

ObamaCare and New Jersey
(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The GOP tax reform bill ended ObamaCare's individual mandate to purchase health insurance, and on Wednesday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a state-level mandate into law.

Beginning next year, New Jersey residents who don't obtain health-care coverage will be fined 2.5 percent of household income, up to the cost of a bronze-level plan in the state insurance exchange, or up to $2,085 per person, whichever is higher. The state treasurer will determine a "hardship exemption" before the law takes effect.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.