Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Haslam Denies Working Tennesseans Health Care, Creates Board to Discuss State Health Problems

You can't make this stuff up.

Earlier this year, Governor Haslam canceled ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion for 330,000 low-income Tennesseans. He said he'd prefer the billions worth of our tax dollars bypass our Medicaid program and go straight into the pockets of private health insurance companies.

Who care's that his insurance company handout doesn't get close to insuring the same amount of low-income families! You working stiffs -- who don't get health care through work -- are on your own!

The problem for Bill (not Pilot or his multimillion dollar handouts for old business partners) is that the Obama administration wants the Medicaid expansion money spent insure the highest amount of  people possible for those dollars.

Haslam's private insurance plan is in the toilet. If private insurance was so cheap -- these folks would already have it.

So what's a governor who's denying care for hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans to do!?

Create a new quasi-governmental body to study Tennessee's health problems, stack it with handpicked business friends and voila! -- a publicity tour to repair the governor's callous health care image.

This health initiative is laughable on its face: Any new health board that specifically excludes coverage for the 330,000 Tennesseans who would be newly eligible for Medicaid is clearly not a serious plan to improve health outcomes and strengthen health care security for our families.

I can say with confidence that Haslam's executive-laced board won't be making house calls when your kids get sick.

Let us save this new board and taxpayers a bunch of money right now. Here's the health care plan: expand Medicaid now. 

What will it cost us? Nothing for three years and never more than 10 cents on the dollar after that.

There's $1 billion of our tax dollars just waiting to spent on health care for us! And that's not all, insuring more people drives everyone's insurance premiums lower.

This is the biggest no brainer in history, but people who are refusing to use their brains are calling the shots.