Working for

health care justice

Tennessee Health Care Campaign (THCC)
Health Care, TennCare, Cover TN & You
Info & Action Alert - State & National Actions
October 3, 2006

State & Local & National:
1. Voter Registration Deadline: Oct. 6 or Oct. 7 if your county election commission is open on Saturday - Your vote counts. Let your voice be heard. Voter Registration Form

2. Knoxville League of Women Voters' Gubernatorial Forum: Tuesday, Oct. 3. 7:00 p.m., Televised Gubernatorial Debate at West High hosted by WBIR, WNOX 100, Knoxville News Sentinel, League of Women Voters & Howard Baker Center for Public Policy. We need folks to help distribute information outside the forum. Call toll free: 1-877-431-7083. For more information, go to: http://wbir.org/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=37669

3. Nashville - Health Care Forum, Seeking Solutions: Tuesday, Oct. 10, 6-8 PM, Wilson Hall, Vanderbilt (Free parking). Speakers include:

Reginald W. Coopwood MD - CEO, Metropolitan Nashville Hospital Authority
Anita Bertrand - Mental Health Association of Middle Tennessee
Sharon Adkins BSN MSN - Executive Director, Tennessee Nurses Association
Frank H. Boehm MD - Professor of Ob/Gyn, Vanderbilt Medical Center
Richard C. Braun MD - Family Medicine Ghana, Africa & Cumberland County, TN
James Hudson MD - Pediatrics, Quality of care consultant

4. Candidate Forums in Murfreesboro & Knoxville; and more: Attached is a schedule of forums and a series of questions that you are encouraged to ask. Get involved. Become an informed voter.

5. Health Care in Tennessee: Lister to Radio Free Nashville every Wednesday, 4-5 PM on line. Listen via "Steaming Audio" to Health Care in Tennessee every Wednesday from 4:00 to 5:00 PM Central Time. Get the latest health care news, both locally and nationally. Radio Free Nashville is a low-power community radio station. Most of you will only be able to listen via streaming audio. Listen in to Radio Free Nashville. CLICK HERE.

6. Cover Tennessee: Click here to see why Cover Tennessee gets poor grades for covering people.

Cover Tennessee: D+

Cover Kids: B

Access Tennessee: D

CoverRx: D+

The Institute of Medicine has set principles for which to grade health care plans. Review the principles and decide for yourself.

1. Universal
2. Continuous
3. Affordable
4. Funding
5. Quality

As we look back over this last year, we accomplished a few important things and lost quite a bit:

  1. Rather than 323,000 people being cut from TennCare, only 225,000 lost their coverage. One person being cut too many. We must stand up against this injustice.

  2. Hard limits were only placed on prescription drugs, not all medical services.

  3. $38 million was approved by legislature in 2006 to provide subsidies (premium and otherwise) for about 20,000 low-income people who were cut from TennCare. It looks like this program may not live up to what was promised.

Despite our work and success, hundred of thousands of Tennesseans remain uninsured and hurting:

  1. Premium Assistance and other subsidies for at least 20,000 low income people to enroll in Access Tennessee looks like it may not live up to its promise. Action needed this weekend and the first of the week. Call you state senator and state representative (click here) this week and ask them to call Commissioner Dave Goetz. Ask the following questions:

    • Why is the program is being delayed?

    • What is the program only going to cover 6,000 to 7,000 people?

    • Why hasn't the state asked for federal matching funds?

  2. There are over 150,000 uninsured children in Tennessee. There were more than 9 million uninsured children (ages 0-18 years) in the country. One out of every nine children is uninsured. The majority of uninsured children—88.3 percent—come from families where at least one parent works. Still, 70.8 percent of uninsured children come from low-income families (families with incomes at or below two times the federal poverty level—$33,200 a year for a family of three in 2006). Get more facts. Sign the petition. Go to: http://www.childrenshealthcampaign.org/

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Tony Garr • TN Health Care Campaign

tgarr@thcc2.org

1-877-431-7083