TRENTON, N.J., January 11 – Acting Governor Richard Codey signed a bill into law creating a 28-member Health Care Access Study Commission to develop specific recommendations guaranteeing health insurance for every person in the state.

The measure, A-1986, directs the commission to report its findings by January 1, 2008.

The ambitious goals laid out for the study include finding an affordable way for a health care system for every person to have health insurance.

The commission was established because nearly 1.2 million New Jersey residents, or about 14 percent of the states population, have no health insurance.

According to the statement creating the commission, the uninsurance rate in New Jersey among both non-elderly adults and children is highest for the poor, whose annual incomes are less than 100 percent of the federal property level.

The Legislature declares in the bills statement that Racial and ethnic, as well as income disparities in access to health care threaten communities across the state, and dollars that could be spent on providing health care services are being diverted to pay administrative costs and not patient needs.

The statement also declares that the current health care system too often puts the financial bottom line ahead of patient care and threatens the financial viability of those health care providers who attempt to provide a safety net that meets the treatment needs of the uninsured and poorly insured.

Among the members to be named by the governor are those with the New Jersey Hospital Association, Hospital Alliance, New Jersey Primary Care Association, the Medical Society, State Nurses association Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, the AARP, New Jersey Business and Industry Association, New Jersey State AFL-CIO, four public members who have worked with medically indigent persons, and state members from the Health Department, Senior Services Department, Insurance Department, and State Treasurers Department.

The members are to be named within the next 60 days under the terms of the new law.