A proposal by Gov. Bill Haslam to extend health coverage to 280,000 low-income Tennesseans failed to garner enough votes to pass during a special legislative session.
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee defeated the Republican governor’s Insure Tennessee plan Wednesday on a 7-4 vote. State Sen. Rusty Crowe (R), who represents District 3 including most of Carter County, is chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
“I was supportive yesterday because as we debated this plan I saw the benefits of it,” Crowe said during a telephone interview with the Elizabethton Star after Wednesday’s vote.
Haslam’s proposal focused on personal responsibility and rewarding those individuals who make good health choices for themselves and their families, Crowe said.
“Personal responsibility was important to me because we have too much of an entitlement mindset,” Crowe said. “That is what is wrong with this country.”
After the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, states were given the option to expand Medicaid programs to help provide insurance to people with low incomes. Haslam spent nearly two years negotiating with federal officials for a special deal for Tennessee. Haslam’s proposal included market-based elements like vouchers to buy private insurance and co-pays. The deal also was to include assurances that the state could pull out of the deal if it ended up being more expensive than expected.
Hospitals in the state pledged to cover the $74 million state share of funding, which meant Tennessee taxpayers wouldn’t be shouldered with the burden of extra health insurance costs.
“I felt like the governor’s approach was a pretty conservative, market-based approach,” Crowe said.
Opponents of Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal objected to adding to the federal debt by having the state draw down $2.8 billion in federal money under President Barack Obama’s health care law.
However, supporters of the plan said they were comfortable with the accountability measures the governor has included, and that the proposal is needed to help those Tennesseans in dire need of health coverage.
But, when it came down to it, Crowe said even supporters found their will to back the plan shaken.
As the debate went on Wednesday, Crowe said the assurance from the federal government that it would back the proposal was just not there.
“I believe most of the committee felt we trust the Governor and his plan, but we can we get some affirmation from the federal government,” Crowe said.
The bill’s sponsor attempted to get some confirmation in writing or even a verbal agreement to ease those fears, but Crowe said the assurance did not come. The committee even discussed passing the proposal with the contigency that it needed the federal support to proceed, he said.
“I think what most of the members felt was that once we passed that resolution we would lose control of the program,” Crowe said. “I didn’t feel it would be right for me, or my constituents, to move forward without those assurances.”
Many of the committee members were shaken by the lack of assurance from the federal government to support the program as Haslam had negotiated it, Crowe said.
“That was pretty disconcerting,” he said. “We lost some trust with the federal government with this program.”
With the plan’s failure in the Senate, it appeared unlikely that the House would move forward with its version of the proposal.
However, House Speaker Beth Harwell said Tuesday that she has offered to have her committee chairmen draw up alternate suggestions for Haslam should his plan appear to be headed for defeat. Crowe said he had spoken with Harwell and the committee was watching to see what her proposal would be.
Crowe was not the only member of the legislature to speak out on the lack of commitment from the federal government.
“Governor Haslam’s hard work and passion on Insure Tennessee has been made clear this week. While many questions have been answered during this special session, several questions remain unanswered. Ultimately, the absence of a clear, written agreement between the federal government and the State of Tennessee made passage impossible,” Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey said. “Tennessee has always been a well-run, fiscally-responsible state. We could not in good conscience put our stamp of approval on a mere verbal agreement with the Obama administration.”
Ramsey, a Republican, represents District 3 in the Senate, which includes a portion of Carter County.
Locally, Mountain States Health Alliance President & CEO Alan Levine expressed his disappointment that the measure failed to make it out of committee.
“We are obviously disappointed by the outcome of the special session. We had hoped the legislature would see the benefit of returning $1 billion annually to Tennessee that Tennesseans are paying in federal taxes, and which are now going to places like California and New York,” Levine said. “There have been no other proposals we are aware of that would provide the opportunity for the working poor to have affordable coverage, and that is too bad for all of us. We look forward to working with our friends in the legislature to find alternatives that makes sense for Tennessee.”
“We applaud the Governor for having the courage to take on this issue,” Levine added.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.