Senate Halts Return of 57,000 to TennCare; Advances Cover Tenn.

A health insurance proposal that Gov. Phil Bredesen has been labeled as fiscally reckless failed to advance out of a Senate committee in Nashville, Tenn. after four Democrats and one Republican declined to vote on the measure.

The Senate Commerce, Labor and Agriculture Committee later voted 8-0 to advance Bredesen’s proposal to subsidize health coverage for uninsured workers. Sen. Jim Bryson, the governor’s likely GOP opponent in the gubernatorial election this fall, was the only committee member to abstain.

Bryson, a Franklin Republican, said he still has “grave concerns” about the funding mechanism and lack of details about Cover Tennessee, and indicated he would like to split the uninsured coverage element into a separate bill.

The governor’s proposal also would include health benefits for uninsured children and people with serious pre-existing conditions, a prescription drug program and diabetes education.

State Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz told the committee that the competing plan to restore 57,200 seriously ill residents previously removed from the state’s expanded Medicaid program could wipe out TennCare reserves.

Sen. Diane Black, R-Hendersonville, said her proposal was aimed at “uninsurable” people who don’t earn enough to afford high-risk pool insurance premiums. Bryson was a previous sponsor of the bill.
The state’s portion of the program would cost about $108 million a year.

Goetz told the committee that the proposal to include only certain diseases could run afoul with federal officials, and that it is uncertain whether the state could earn a waiver to return the uninsurables to TennCare.

The committee adopted an amendment to only allow the bill to go into effect if the matching funds are approved by the federal government.
Four Republicans voted in favor of the measure, but since the five remaining members didn’t vote, the bill didn’t get enough votes to advance to the Senate Finance Committee.

The lone Republican not voting for the measure was Senate Speaker Pro Tem Mike Williams, R-Maynardville.

Bredesen, a Democrat, last month spoke out against the proposal, telling a business group that passing the measure would reopen the floodgates of TennCare costs. Escalating costs at TennCare last year led the governor to cut nearly 200,000 adults and reduce benefits for thousands of others.

Sen. Don McLeary, called it a philosophical question whether lawmakers should offer coverage to working adults when there are more that 50,000 seriously ill Tennesseans without health insurance.

“Do you take care of the most vulnerable and the sickest, or do you throw the money out and spread it around and just ignore them?” said McLeary, R-Jackson. “I don’t think you can ignore them.”
McLeary ended up voting for both measures.

State Democratic Party Chairman Bob Tuke criticized Bryson for not making a decision on the Cover Tennessee bill.

“It’s clear Senator Bryson doesn’t have the stomach to make tough decisions,” Tuke said in a release. “This was his first chance as a gubernatorial candidate to take a real position on an issue that matters, and he couldn’t even find the nerve to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no.'”

Fliers supporting the Cover Tennessee proposal were posted around the Capitol complex on Monday. They are similar in color scheme and design to ones posted by opponents last week.

Both sets of fliers feature photos of residents potentially affected by the program with dueling slogans. Opponents’ posters say “Cover Tennessee won’t cover me,” while the supporting ones say: “Cover Tennessee. Good for me. Good for Tennessee.”

The only hint that the administration is behind the pro-Cover Tennessee fliers is a Web address at the bottom of the page linking to the governor’s office.

The posters feature first-person accounts of small business owners who say the plan would be beneficial to their companies and their employees.

“Don’t let the governor get talked out of this,” Raymond Harris, a co-owner of All Coast Trucking in Lebanon, is quoted as saying.

Topics Tennessee Politics