Tenncare: Katrina folks: yay; Tennesseans: nay

[Mob Mama]

can someone explain this situation to me? I have friends who have elderly and very sick parents getting kicked off Tenncare, and my local paper says that evacuees ARE eligible for the program. There have been reports of 20k evacuees in our state.

I thought Bredesen declared no new enrolees. What gives? (The socialist in me wants proper medical care for all - the somewhat-bitchy side of me gets pissed at watching friends get sick without their meds).

[Spinzonner]

1. Bus them to the next disaster

so they can become one of the privileged class

:sarcasm:

[Traveling_Home]

2. Tenncare

The way I understand it, which should be thoroughly checked with Tennesses ADAPT and a perhaps Justice For All, is that the Tenncare program (which is medicaid based) has basically 50% Federal and 50% State money in it. The state of Tennessee doesn't want to increase the state medicaid matching funs, therefore less Federal funds are recieved and Tennessee has less services available. However for Katrina victims enrolled in any medicaid program while displaced, the state will be reimbursed 100% - therefore the state incurs no state financial liability for enrolling and providind services to Katrina folks while the state does incur addtional financial liability by enrolling Tennessee citizens in the program.

It's a State of Tennessee legislature problem that your friend can' get more help.

[tnlefty]

3. It's a "state's voter" problem and not a General assembly problem.

After so many cuts were made from the Feds to the state during the first term of Bush**, the people in this state decided they wanted more of the same and voted for it. These same voters do not want to pay local taxes, nor do they want a state income tax, but still want "needs" taken care of!

I'm just tired of Gov. Bredesen and the General Assembly taking all of the blame for this mess. The people who voted for Bush** are responsible for this and some of them are whining the loudest.

[levitatingdonkey]

4. I think the 100% fed pitch-in is only for 6 months...

I've heard the same thing about the Feds picking up 100% of the costs, but I also heard it with a time limit of 6 months. After that, it's back to the 50/50 match or whatever. Not absolutely sure though.

Of course, Bush has tried to use this disaster to push his right-wing policies, including medical saving accounts for all the Katrina victims. Democrats and Republicans at a national level have sent a message that this is not the time for experimental policies, and are pushing instead to use what we know works... TennCare and other state equivalents, with the feds footing the bill.

That said, I'd rather have the victims on a program like TennCare that is proven successful than to have Bush able to use it to introduce more of his right-wing agenda, whether that is medical savings accounts, school vouchers, more corporate tax breaks, or waivers of environmental regulations (ALL of which are being pushed by Bush in a shameful attempt to take advantage of the nation's sympathy for the Katrina victiems).