Governor Phil Murphy appeared at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank Friday to tout an expected drop in healthcare insurance costs for New Jersey customers of Obamacare. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)

Under the New Jersey Health Insurance Premium Security Fund, the average premium paid by customers in the individual market will drop by 9.3 percent in 2019, Murphy said.

According to NJ Spotlight, some 300,000 state residents purchase this type of insurance on the federal Affordable Care Act website or directly from insurance companies that sell policies on the state’s individual market.

Under a state law Murphy  signed in May, New Jersey became the first state in the nation to preserve the individual mandate for health coverage that was eliminated at the federal level under the Trump Administration. Another bill signed at the same time created the New Jersey Health Insurance Premium Security Fund, a reinsurance program to protect insurers from certain high-cost claims.

In August, the Trump administration approved the state’s request to create the fund.

Without the state’s actions, affected residents would have seen premium rates rise by 12.6 percent from last year, Murphy told a gathering of healthcare providers and reporters.

“We are proving that it is imperative for states to step up” to protect the Affordable Care Act from “sabotaging” by the Trump Administration, Murphy said.