WPC Endorses Insure Tennessee
There will be an informational panel on Insure Tennessee on January 29th. Click here for more information.
The Women’s Political Collaborative of Tennessee (WPCTN) is proud to support the Coalition for a Healthy Tennessee and encourages the Tennessee General Assembly to approve Governor Haslam’s Insure Tennessee plan. WPCTN’s mission is to support initiatives across the state that promote and protect families, women and children. Insure Tennessee will provide access to health insurance coverage to vulnerable Tennesseans below 138 percent of poverty who have no other options. They are not eligible for Medicaid coverage through TennCare, nor are they eligible for subsidized private health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act. These Tennesseans are truly “in the gap,” with annual incomes of less than $16,000 for an individual and $27,000 for a family of four. In fact, approximately two thirds of them are even below 100 percent of poverty, which is $11,670 for a single person and $23,850 for a family of four.
Roughly 200,000 people in the target population are expected to seek access to Insure Tennessee, if it is approved by the state legislature. 46percent of the target group is employed. 24,000 of them are veterans.
Insure Tennessee consists of two options:
1. The Volunteer Plan offers to pay a defined contribution through a voucher to help cover the insurance premium for those who are currently employed and who have a health insurance program available through their employers.
2. The Healthy Incentives Plan will be comparable to plans offered to people who are currently in the TennCare program but will include some low premium and co-pay costs. It will also feature incentives so that members can “earn” credits by healthy behaviors and use the credits to offset their premium and co-pay responsibilities.
Insure Tennessee is to initially be a two year pilot program with 100 percent federal funding the first year and slightly reduced federal funding available the second. If extended, it would continue to qualify for slightly lower amounts of federal funding each year until 2020, when the Affordable Care Act provides for a flat 90 percent federal funding level indefinitely. The Tennessee Hospital Association supports legislation that will increase an existing hospital assessment fee to provide the state share of funding needed for the program as the federal funding is gradually reduced to the 90 percent level.
If you feel so inclined, please contact your legislator and encourage them to support this measure.
