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New Jersey Treasury Department officials are warning about rising costs and spiraling structural deficiencies in the State Health Benefits Program, which provides health care coverage used by hundreds of thousands of state and local public employees.

In a report released May 20, Treasury officials say the program is facing challenges because rising costs of health care coverage are driving some local governments to seek cheaper benefits alternatives. That exodus is creating what Treasury officials call a “systemic unraveling” of the SHBP.

There are 689 local government agencies using the State Health Benefits Program, and participants have seen premiums increase by nearly 60% since 2022, the report says. The plan covers more than 700,000 public employees statewide.

Premium increases are expected this year as well.

What does the report say?

The local government plan — the portion of the SHBP that covers local government employees — faces legitimate financial concerns right now, the report notes.

In October 2024, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation to allow funds to be temporarily transferred from the state plan to the local government plan to cover shortfalls. In five months, transfers of $258 million were approved. About $138 million has been repaid, and an outstanding balance of $120 million remains.

The plan faces what actuaries refer to as a “death spiral,” the report says.

“This dynamic arises when the financial sustainability of a health benefits program deteriorates in a self-reinforcing cycle, each worsening cycle compounding the next,” it says.

As healthier local governments leave the plan for cheaper options, those left behind with higher medical use see premiums go up. This leads to more local governments leaving the plan. In turn, having fewer participants leads to a smaller buffer to mitigate premium spikes, actuarial losses or cash flow needs, the report explains.

About 45% of the state’s 1,200 eligible local public entities are currently using health benefit programs outside the state’s plan.

This is “not merely facing a financial problem” but a “structural unraveling that, left unaddressed, will lead to collapse,” Treasury officials say in the report.

What comes next?

With the report, prepared at the direction of the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy, Treasury is urging the Legislature to intervene. That said, the report doesn’t make any specific recommendations as to what comes next but offers policy options because of the urgent nature of the problem.

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Even the options provided have no real time frame of implementation but rather depend on the specific initiatives considered by the Legislature.

Those options include a “phased and orderly closing” of the local government health benefits plan to allow “local entities to transition into self-governed collectives.”

Alternative policy options for short-term stabilization could also be implemented, but they “will not fully resolve the structural deficiencies or halt the death spiral.”

They include a installing a minimum lock-in period of three to five years for agencies participating in the program, reforming the Plan Design Committee to include a delegated authority to the treasurer or director of the Division of Pensions and Benefits so that routine plan changes could be made, and rebuilding the claims stabilization reserve to the recommended two-month level.

“These short-term measures are independent of the more comprehensive solution of dissolution,” the report said. “The simultaneous introduction of all of the three short-term measures will have a cumulative positive effect, since governance modernization alone cannot succeed.”

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

Hundreds of youths descended upon a north Jersey mall Saturday night in a meet-up that was reportedly pre-planned on TikTok and led to a massive brawl.

Seven minors were arrested in the chaotic melee that was spurred by TikTok posts calling for juveniles to meet up at the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, New Jersey, that night, according to officials and local reports.

The out-of-control gathering soon grew exponentially from just 100 people to “over 300 youth” from across the Garden State shortly after 8 p.m., Edison Mayor Sam Joshi wrote on social media.

At least four of the seven minors who were arrested were from other towns, according to Joshi.

Edison police had to call for back-up from neighboring police departments to clear out the hooligans.

As cops worked to get the rowdy crowd under control, one officer fractured their ankle, Edison Police Chief Tom Bryan told My Central Jersey.

None of the youths were injured and no weapons were recovered, cops said.

Of the seven arrested, one was charged with aggravated assault on an officer, and six others face disorderly conduct charges. One person was charged with both disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, Bryan told the outlet.

Some participating youth shared posts on TikTok and Instagram leading up to the swarm, telling people to show up at the mall at 7 p.m.

It’s unclear if any of the posts advertised a fight or if it was intended for some other kind of event, but Bryan confirmed that TikTok played a role in the huge crowd.

One TikTok shared last Tuesday that pitched a “Menlo Mall Linkup??” received over 9,000 likes and 156,000 views. The user posted about the meetup again on Thursday.

Videos later capturing the chaotic scene quickly went viral on TikTok overnight as teens wreaked havoc, screaming and running from officers while they were making arrests.

Impromptu fights spurred by social media meet-ups have resulted in slews of minors being arrested in the last year.

In October, “mass chaos” broke out at the Kings Dominion theme park just outside of Richmond, Va, following a social media callout. No one was arrested after 14 deputies responded to the scene.

In November, an armed teenage gangbanger lost hold of his gun during a fight at a mall in Long Island. A bystander kicked the weapon further away from the teen in a video released in early May.

The Post reached out to the Edison Police Department for comment.