Tennessee is likely to reject hundreds of millions of dollars President Joe Biden is offering states to expand Medicaid as part of his $1.3 trillion COVID-19 relief package, even though hundreds of thousands of people remain without health care coverage.
Democrats have been urging the state’s top Republican leaders for years to accept the federal government’s funds to increase TennCare coverage to 300,000-plus uninsured and underinsured residents caught in a gap between the state’s Medicaid plan and the Affordable Care Act. Some estimates put the figure at 600,000.
Tennessee, one of 12 states holding out on Medicaid expansion since the Affordable Care Act passed, could receive $1.7 billion to provide insurance for the working poor and more money to cover the people already on TennCare, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning organization.
But even if the Biden administration sweetens the pot with COVID-19 relief money, Republicans in Tennessee are expected to turn it down, especially after receiving approval for a Medicaid modified block grant or “shared savings program.”
Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and other top Republicans, including Gov. Bill Lee, adamantly oppose widening the net for TennCare.