In its second committee vote this year, Insure Tennessee failed to pass amid concerns on cost and effectiveness of the plan.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s healthcare initiative was
defeated in a second committee vote in March.
Insure Tennessee is a two-year pilot program that Gov.
Haslam proposed as an alternative to traditional Medicaid expansion. The outlined plan would provide healthcare
coverage to the more than 200,000 uninsured Tennesseans who earn less than 138
percent of the federal poverty level. Lawmakers questioned whether the state
would be able to eliminate the program if Insure Tennessee turns out to be too
costly for the state.
On March 31, the proposal failed
in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee. In a special session held in
February, the proposal failed in the Health and Welfare Committee, after which,
the proposal underwent some changes to appease concerns from legislators.
However, it seems the changes did not go far enough to resolve the cost issues.
A January NFIB survey revealed that 65 percent of respondents
opposed the governor’s original proposal; many legislators questioned the
effectiveness and cost impact of the plan.
“[The members are] concerned with more federal borrowing,
how the plan will operate, likely loopholes and a lack of benchmarks,”
NFIB/Tennessee state director Jim Brown said in January about the survey.
“Members appreciate core principles in the governor’s plan, but most aren’t
convinced yet it would operate effectively enough, and believe taxpayers would
be pressured to foot any cost overruns.”
Reportedly, the plan would require hospitals to kick in an
additional $74 million to cover the costs, with no added expense at the outset
to Tennessee taxpayers.
In the special survey, 71 percent of NFIB/Tennessee members
said Medicaid needs to be reevaluated for its cost impact on the state before
expanding in any form.
