Continuing our theme on health care is Senator Paul Bailey of Sparta and Representative Timothy Hill of blood [??? 0:07], who shared some big news recently about the republican plans for Medicaid, and some of the uninsured in Tennessee. Welcome to the show. Thanks for joining us.
HILL: Thank you.
BAILEY: Thank you for having us.
We’ll start with you, Senator. What is the history of this and why take it on now?
BAILEY: Well, I think that Tennessee has an opportunity to bring forth an innovative program that could basically sweep across the nation in asking the federal government for a Medicaid or TennCare waiver. Our legislation is basically asking the governor, Governor Lee, to request this waiver to be able to bring about an innovative program, Medicaid program for the state of Tennessee.
So, you’re sponsoring it in the Senate, your sponsoring it in the house. What are the key issues that you think are involved in this as far as giving the State control of Medicaid money?
HILL: So, the money that’s in place, that’s already Tennessee taxpayer dollars, what the overall goal is to use existing resources to serve as many people as we can across the great State of Tennessee. With the request, the requirement of the request for Medicaid block grant dollars, we’re trying to eliminate, and at the very least reduce the cost of compliance, and take that money and put it toward the actual care of the people who are in the most need in the State.
So, if it passes, the Governor requests the money, what happens there?
BAILEY: From their CMS will take the Governor’s request, they’ll review it, they will probably ask the director of TennCare to provide a detailed plan as to how we would restructure TennCare, and how we would move it forward.
Okay. So, in the past, some of the Democrats have asked for Medicaid expansion. What’s the difference between that and what they proposed in the past?
HILL: Medicaid expansion as it has been traditionally suggested is more money, more money and trying to fix the problem. What we’re doing is we’re taking a conservative approach and we want to do it the Tennessee way. We want to streamline the program, we want to, like I shared, eliminate the costs of compliance, but we’re trying to get the help to everybody that we can. The Tennessee legislature is not going to expand Obamacare, and I would argue wisely, is not going to expand Obamacare, and expand Medicaid in the style of Obamacare. So, we have the choice of not expanding it, and we’ve demonstrated that we’re not going to do that. And so then the question becomes what do you do? We can sit back and say, well, we just can’t help the folks or we can try to come up with a conservative solution to meet that need. And this is the first step in the process.
It’s been estimated there’s 150,000 or so uninsured working poor in the State of Tennessee. So, what does this do for those people?
BAILEY: Well, I think once the program was implemented, and we restructure TennCare, with the cost savings that we have, we would be able to begin covering those that are working poor and bring medical coverage to them. You know, again, the details would have to be work between the legislature the executive branch as well as TennCare in developing that program. Now, to say that once the waiver was granted and TennCare was restructured, that we would immediately cover 150,000 people, that’s going to probably take just a little bit of time. But once we have the program in place, and the cost savings that we’ll see, just through the administrative cost savings will begin to cover more people.
There’s a step between when the bill passes, and the federal government. It’s the Governor Bill Lee, where does he stand on this?
BAILEY: Governor Lee has made a statement that he is in support of our legislation, as well as revamping TennCare. This has been something that Representative Hill and I both have worked with our TennCare director as well as the Lee Administration to make sure that we’re all in lockstep, that we’re working for the common good of the people of Tennessee.
Of course, there’s a super majority of the republicans in the House and the Senate. But what kind of bipartisan support are you getting on this?
HILL: Well on this piece of legislation, we want everybody to join in because the concept so broad, and it’s the right thing to do. It’s the right thing to do for Tennesseans it’s the right thing for the legislature to do. And of course, if you have a supermajority, there’s tremendous momentum behind it. We want broad support, we want everybody to come to the concept. Don’t worry about the party. Don’t worry about what bias that you may have, review the legislation that set and vote on it on its merit. And so we want everybody to come on board, but at the end of the day, the republican supermajority is going to lead through Tennessee, we’re going to be a national example. We want everybody to be on the train, but at the same time, I believe we have the momentum to pass it as it’s it.
They’re co-sponsors of the block grant Medicaid request, Representative Timothy Hill and Senator Paul Bailey, thank you for joining us on Tennessee Capitol Report.
HILL: Thank you.
BAILEY: Thank you.