The protest sign was stark — but accurate.
“Blood on Todd’s Hands,” it read.
The protester held the sign during a mock funeral here in Chattanooga to show anger and opposition for the vote that killed Gov. Bill Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal to extend health coverage to 280,000 low-income Tennesseans. The sign alluded to the fact that state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and six other Republican senators killed the proposal in a committee without allowing the full legislature an opportunity to debate and vote on the proposal.
Gardenhire and Republican senators Mike Bell, of Riceville; Brian Kelsey, of Germantown; Frank Niceley, of Strawberry Plains; Kerry Roberts, of Springfield; and Health Committee Chairman Rusty Crowe, of Johnson City are the most to blame for the fiscally foolish and inhumane rejection of health care access already paid for by Tennesseans.
On the other hand, if you were part of the largely Republican, 132-member Tennessee General Assembly, Gardenhire and his gang are the folks you owe big-time for saving you the pain of a roll-call vote over a divisive question that would put you squarely between a rock and a hard place — the rock being a wise fiscal decision to bring $22.5 billion (billion with a b) in Tennessee taxpayer money back to our state to help our state, and the hard place being a defacto acceptance of what the GOP curses most: the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare.
Thanks to Todd and crew, the remaining assembly members’ hands aren’t bloody because the Senate Health Committee vote was 7-4 against the plan (and a full Senate vote on it). The House never acted. The governor, who could have brought our money home to work for us from the get-go, dithered around with a grandstand GOP act for so long that lawmakers passed legislation requiring their approval to expand coverage here. Even when the governor did see the light, he didn’t play hardball over new roads or health care. Now, nearly two years later, all of Tennessee’s governance has essentially painted itself — and us — into an ugly red corner.
Democratic Party Chairman Mary Mancini labeled the result quite well: “It’s legislative malpractice,” she said simply.
Adam Searing, senior research fellow at Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, described it as pragmatism versus politics: “To explain the ins and outs of [Haslam’s free-market] program and the fact that it comes at no cost to the state takes about five minutes. It takes about 30 seconds for a competitor to mention Obamacare in a campaign ad.”
Still, Haslam said he found himself surprised by lawmakers’ reactions. He said he still believed Republican primary voters supported a free-market program like Insure Tennessee that would use the taxpayer money of the ACA through vouchers to help the working poor afford employer insurance or pay for insurance through the ACA’s HealthCare.gov marketplace of private coverage. Haslam said he underestimated how much our legislators would cling to their primary-safe claim of distrusting federal government.
What’s next?
In the short term, Sunday is the deadline for open enrollment in HealthCare.gov. Missing the deadline could result in tax penalties — more losses for uninsured Tennesseans.
In the long term, Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, has introduced a resolution to allow Haslam to pursue his Insure Tennessee proposal in the regular General Assembly session, as well as a second resolution to authorize full expansion of the state’s Medicaid program. Yarbro also has filed a bill to repeal last year’s legislation that required the governor to get the General Assembly’s approval to expand the state’s Medicaid coverage under the ACA.
“Democratic lawmakers agree this issue is too important to let drop just because the governor’s own party let him down,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart, D-Nashville. “We are committed to finding a way to bring affordable health care to Tennesseans.”
In the still longer term, watch for a series of political backfires as people in the Volunteer State finally begin to understand that their money is paying for health care coverage in other states. Since the Affordable Care Act was enacted, 28 states have opted to expand their Medicaid under the ACA, and they are benefiting from our money even while our own people are not, even while our own hospitals suffer, and even while our own state budget struggles.
With those backfires, watch for the GOP — especially the tea-party leaning clan — to finally have some real competition in upcoming elections.
This vote made people mad. Very mad.