Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam spoke before a joint session of the General Assembly Monday, trying to sell state lawmakers on his Insure Tennessee proposal.
He did so on the first day of a special session regarding the governor’s plan, which would provide health coverage to an estimated 280,000 Tennesseans who are currently uninsured.
However, not everyone is sold on the governor’s plan. Senator Brian Kelsey says it would do more harm than good.
WREG spoke with him and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, who thinks the plan is vital to Shelby County and the people who live and work here.
“Currently, I oppose the plan to expand Medicaid in Tennessee during the Obama Care Act,” Kelsey said.
“If we don’t receive this reimbursement, then we have to come up with the funding some other way,” Mayor Luttrell countered.
They are two very different sides with two very different opinions about Haslam’s Insure Tennessee plan.
While the plan may sound good on the surface, Kelsey said it’s not all it seems.
“The question here is who’s paying for this health care, and I don’t want to have to see Tennessee taxpayers pay for that health care,” he said.
He worries the plan will have long-term negative impacts on our area and the entire state.
“This plan will add $1.4 billion dollars each year to the federal debt and Tennessee taxpayers share of that debt,” he said.
But Mayor Luttrell argues the consequences come with not opting for Insure Tennessee, such as funding for Regional One Medical Center drying up.
“…Let’s just say a $70 million cut in reimbursement at the Med. Then we’re going to have to make up roughly $70 million, and that’s almost a ten percent increase in the property tax rate,” he said.
Senator Kelsey wants the focus to shift.
“We have got to encourage this population of healthy, able bodied, jobless adults to get into full-time employment and then receive their health insurance there,” he said.
However, the mayor said the focus just needs to broaden.
“We need to do both! We certainly need to focus on our economy. We need to focus on growing jobs. We need to focus on building jobs, and we need to focus on healthcare,” he said.