Governor Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Legislature agreed on a $46.5 billion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2022 that the governor says will “help New Jersey build back from the pandemic while moving our state forward.” The Legislature will vote on the proposal on Thursday.

Some of the top priorities in the governor’s proposal include ensuring Medicaid coverage for a year after delivering a baby, expanding funding for women’s health care, increasing funding for residential providers for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and making prescription drugs more affordable for seniors.

Governor Murphy’s budget plan also includes $20 million in funding to begin an initiative called Cover All Kids, which would remove the 90-day waiting period before coverage can begin under the New Jersey Children’s Health Insurance Program, eliminates premiums for the program, and invests in outreach to eligible but unenrolled children who are uninsured.

$8.5 million is allocated in the budget to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage, and $19 million to support the new Reproductive Health Care Fund, which will help undocumented women living in New Jersey and legal residents without medical coverage.

It also calls for an increase of $5 million for supportive housing rental subsidies for individuals with mental health conditions living integrated in their communities and $4 million for a psychiatric residency pipeline program to address New Jersey’s dearth of psychiatrists.

The budget also includes $4.7 billion to provide health coverage to New Jerseyans through NJ FamilyCare, with enrollment expected to increase by 16% from Fiscal Year 2020.

The budget also calls for an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit to those 65 and older without dependents, which would benefit an estimated 70,000 New Jersey residents.

It also adds more than $60 million in additional child care funding, including for New Jersey’s child care subsidy program and invests $5 million for two pilot programs to support child care providers.