This week the Senate Health and Welfare Subcommittee on TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, voted 3-2 to recommend legislation that would give Insure Tennessee another chance, according to the report.
The proposed bill includes several changes to Gov. Haslam’s original proposal, which died during a special session in February.
Those changes, according to the report, call for the following: Incorporating provisions “substantially similar” to Indiana’s Medicaid expansion, such as setting a six-month lockout for coverage for people who don’t pay premiums for two consecutive months; not implementing Insure Tennessee until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on King vs. Burwell, the case that will determine whether people in all states will receive health insurance subsidies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and receiving written confirmation from CMS that Tennessee can opt out if the state is ever required to spend tax money for the program.
Insure Tennessee would provide federally subsidized healthcare to an estimated 280,000 residents between the ages of 19 and 64 who are not otherwise eligible for Medicaid and have family incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level. It would be fully funded with federal dollars through Dec. 31, 2016. Then, beginning Jan. 1, 2017, when the federal match rate declines, it would be funded with federal dollars as well as revenues from a state assessment on hospitals.
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