Analysis: Working Tennesseans Could Save Big Bucks with Health Care Reform
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December 7, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Federal health care reform plans being debated in the U.S. Senate could greatly expand TennCare, the current Medicaid system in Tennessee, and Tony Garr, executive director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, says that would benefit even those not using TennCare. He explains that when people don't have health coverage, they rely more on emergency rooms, and that can add as much as ten percent to the cost of insurance premiums for everyone.
"You might think, I'm paying for just my premium. The fact of the matter is, when someone shows up at the hospital, if they don't have health insurance, that's paid for by somebody, and the reality is that it's sort of like a surcharge to the premiums I'm paying now."
A Kaiser Family Foundation report finds that the legislation could also help control costs for consumers through a health insurance exchange, where Tennesseans would be offered a choice of private health plans tailored to what they could afford.
Garr says the health insurance exchange proposal would sharpen competition among plans and minimize the tendency for plans to vary benefits in order to attract mainly healthier-than-average enrollees. He says the bottom line would mean more insurance for everyone.
"There would be somewhere on the order of 300,000 to 350,000 low-income working folks who would be covered through the TennCare program. There'll be an additional 300,000 to 350,000 people covered through the new exchange."
The Tennessee Health Care Campaign also says that, with full coverage for all Tennesseans, medical debt and bankruptcies caused by drastic illness or injuries could be reduced.
Opponents of health care reform plans say more needs to be done to control overall health care costs, not just premium prices.
The Kaiser report is at www.kff.org