Tennessee: Bredesen defends health care record

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen defended his record on health care Tuesday even as the liberal political group MoveOn.org added its voice to critics attacking his possible nomination for U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.

In a telephone conference call with state reporters, Gov. Bredesen also maintained he is not lobbying President Barack Obama for the slot.

“I’m not campaigning for this job. I’m not applying for it,” said Gov. Bredesen, who last week said he was interested in the post.

The position was left open when former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s nomination broke down over issues including nonpayment of taxes.

Gov. Bredesen’s name has come up in several national publications as a possible pick. A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a message Tuesday.

Several health care advocacy groups, ranging from the Tennessee Health Care Campaign to Washington-based Families USA, have criticized the possible choice of Gov. Bredesen. This week, MoveOn.org — which claims about 4 million members — moved into the Bredesen-bashing arena, calling him “a bad choice for health care reform.”

“Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen made his fortune acquiring and running HMOs,” said an e-mail sent Monday by MoveOn.org. “As governor, he gutted Tennessee’s public health insurance program, causing more than 320,000 people to lose their health insurance.”

The governor sought to brush aside interviews he is doing in national publications, including The Wall Street Journal, saying they were in response to advocacy groups’ comments.

“Your name comes up and immediately you’ve got these advocacy groups (that) start filling up a garbage can and dump it all over you,” the governor said. “I kind of had to take it all weekend. Today I’ve been talking to people and saying I don’t care whether they are considering me or not.

“But I’m certainly not going to let people say things that are just plain wrong, and I’ve been pushing back on it a little.”

Advocacy groups accuse Gov. Bredesen of slashing the state’s TennCare program by about 300,000 enrollees when other avenues were available.

The governor said “their basic criticism was that I used a meat ax and not a scalpel.”

“If anything, I went far, far too long trying to use a scalpel,” he said. “We went for a year and a half trying to do this stuff with changes to benefits without disenrolling anyone.”