This morning the New York Times reported that TennCare, the low-income health insurance program in Tennessee is on the verge of closing.
TennCare insures 1.3 million people--nearly a quarter of the states population . . . "TennCare consumes nearly a third of the state's 25 billion budget -- make it unaffordable unless it can be radically restructured to save money and limit benefits." Per Rick Lyman reporting in the NY Times.
The gist of the article is barring a miracle, it's goodbye TennCare.
My letter to the editor is self-explanatory.
To the Editor:
After reading Once a Model, a Health Plan Is Endangered, and since the election of George Bush, I sadly ask myself two questions which the otherwise excellent article left unanswered. 1) Do the people currently enrolled in TennCare consider access to quality health care a "moral value"? 2) I would also have hoped that Rick Lyman might have asked
the same people, did you vote for George Bush, did you even bother to vote at all?
Most depressing, am I overreaching to point out that anyone currently enrolled in TennCare--those on the verge of losing health care, who voted for Bush because "moral values" was their overriding issue--they are getting exactly what they voted for.