Individual health insurance rates in New Jersey will decrease on average by 9.3 percent for 2019, a far cry from the 5.8 percent average rate hike carriers requested earlier this year, Gov. Murphy announced Friday. Murphy credited two laws he signed in May for producing the rate reduction: one creating an individual health insurance mandate, and another establishing a reinsurance program. The laws were a response to the federal tax overhaul President Trump signed in December. That law scrapped the individual mandate included in the ACA. "Our work is based on the core belief that health care is a right—not a privilege," Murphy said in a statement. (Christian Hetrick, Philadelphia Inquirer)