June 28, 2006 11:20AM # For Affordable Health Insurance, Cross the Delaware By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE My brother (whose name, no joke, is [Eugene](http://www.zoogstercostumes.com/images/products/ra7298_xl.jpg)) just moved to New Jersey with his wife (Katryce) and the two cutest nieces you ever saw (Helaina and Deaven). New Jersey is known as health insurance hell, so I went to eHealth​In​sur​ance​.com to see how much it would cost Euge to purchase a family policy in New Jersey’s highly regulated individual market. Answer: a lot. In fact, some of his options cost more than my mortgage. Meanwhile, our college buddy in Doylestown (Mike) has over five times as many choices for covering his wife and two daughters in Pennsylvania’s individual market. And the *most* expensive policy in PA is about the same price as the *least* expensive plan in NJ. If Euge were just to move his family in with his old roommate, he could save thousands on health insurance. *…or,* Congress could just tear down the senseless trade barriers that keep New Jerseyites from purchasing health insurance from Pennsylvania. Get the full story [here](http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/opinion/local1/14917914.htm). ##### Related Tags [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care), [Regulation](https://www.cato.org/regulatory-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).