Les Jones

East Tennessee > Gov. Bredesen's Live Speech on TennCare Reform

I'm watching it on TV right now, and will update this post as his speech continues. I'm TiVoing it so I can rewind to grab quotes.

Some facts so far:

• TennCare growth will consume 91% of all state revenue growth by 2008 if left unchecked.
• TennCare costs more than the states educational system
• Just two drugs (have to rewind to get the names) account for a greater expense than the cost of running the UT Medical School.
• 15% of TennCare members represent 75% of the cost

More quick facts from the TV station overlay:

• Started in 1994 with a $3.2 billion budget.
• Current budget - $7.1 billion
• 64% from Federal funding
• 1.3 million enrollees, which includes 500,000 children. 23% of the state's population is enrolled in TennCare

Parts of Bredesen's position:

• Must protect children, pregnant mothers and the disabled
• Corruption and ineficiency have to be addressed, but increased efficiency alone can't fix the system
• More taxes can at best patch the system and delay reform for a few years, so he will not propose new taxes.
• Two safety nets. This is a long quote, but it's difficult to summarize and seems to be a key part of the plan. "As we put these benefit changes in place, we also need to provide safety nets. I'm proposing two of them. First, there'll be people from time to time who need some medical service that simply cannot pay. For emergencies of course a person can always go to the nearest emergency room and receive attention there as a matter of law. For non-emergency circumstances we're proposing to provide some funds to selected safety net hospitals with associated medical groups around our state and ask those hospitals to accept the responsibility to provide care without cost sharing. It's not as convenient for a beneficiary as using a private doctor or a local hospital or a pharmacy but it ensures that no one is ever denied care because of the inability to pay."
• At the end of his speech, Bredesen returned to his parable of the family who bought the biggest house in the neighborhood. They bought it with the best of intentions, but paying for it took all of their money, with nothing left for other important things in their life. They eventually realized that the house owned them, and decided to make a few sacrifices and live in a smaller house.

Afterwards

The speech was good, but light on details. For specifics, go to Phil Bredesen's TennCare Strategy page.

Some of the proposals outlined in the PowerPoint presentation (.PDF format) include:

• Some limits on the number of doctor and hospital visits (there currently are none)
• A limit of six prescriptions per month (there currently are no limits)
• Co-pays (most TennCare recipients currently do not have any co-pays)