The campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie further stepped up its push back against Democratic claims that his plan to permit insurance companies selling health insurance in the state to also offer scaled-back "mandate free" policies would cost women coverage for mammograms. Christie says it's a way to entice younger, uninsured people to sign up for a bare-bones policy that would cover annual checkups and catastrophic illness or injury. Democrats say it's a path to allow insurers to avoid covering mandated care.
Today, Christie himself speaks to the camera in a web video in which he says, "Governor, stop lying about things are so important to New Jerseyans and their families" and notes a mammogram that detected his mom's breast cancer 30 years ago saved her life. Yesterday the campaign sent out lieutenent governor candidate Kim Guadagno and two lawmakers to respond.
"What I'm not going to put up with is when Jon Corzine runs ads and puts out information that blatantly lies about something in my record that also very, very important to me personally. I will not put up with the lies that he's putting out there about my position on breast cancer screening. Gov. Corzine is lying when he tells you that my health insurance plan would take away mammograms from women."