Medicaid Expansion – Tennessee

Posted on March 27, 2013 by admin

• Haslam rejects Medicaid expansion, calls for ‘third’ option, By Tom Humphrey, March 27, 2013, Knoxville News-Sentinel: “Gov. Bill Haslam told the General Assembly today that he is rejecting an expansion of Medicaid for now because the federal government has not agreed to some aspects of a ‘Tennessee plan’ that involves using federal money to buy private insurance. ‘A pure expansion of medicaid, expanding a broken system, doesn’t work,’ said Haslam, contending he wants to use federal money to buy private insurance akin to the approach being tried in Arkansas. That would mean more people with health insurance without expanding the number on TennCare, the state’s system for Medicaid, he said. But the federal Department of Health and Human Services has insisted on conditions for implementing the proposal that are unacceptable, Haslam said, and for now he will not recommend expansion in Tennessee…”
• Tenn. gov won’t expand Medicaid to cover uninsured, By Chas Sisk and Tom Wilemon, March 27, 2013, The Tennessean: “Gov. Bill Haslam rejected an estimated $1 billion a year from the federal government to expand TennCare to 180,000 Tennesseans, saying he wanted to bargain for a better deal that would ensure the state won’t have to shoulder that cost later down the road. Haslam said in a speech this morning to the state legislature that he wants to pursue a ‘Tennessee plan’ for expanding health care coverage to more of the uninsured. But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has not signed off on it. As a result, Haslam announced that he will not expand the rolls of TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, this year under the Affordable Care Act. But he said the state could expand TennCare later if federal officials will give it the freedom to buy private coverage, an idea being pursued by Arkansas and Ohio…”