Staff Photo by Robin Rudd/ Kelli Klein, of the Tennessee Justice Center, holds a sign during the forum. A public hearing on Gov. Bill Lee’s Medicaid block grant proposal took place at the Chattanooga Public Library on October 16, 2019.NASHVILLE – Tennessee officials received nearly 1,800 public comments – most of it overwhelmingly negative – on Gov. Bill Lee’s controversial plan to convert most federal financial support for the state’s TennCare Medicaid health insurance program into a block grant.
The block grant would mean fewer rules on how the $12.1 billion program covers 1.4 million low-income residents.
In all, the state received 1,769 comments over a 30-day period that ended Oct. 18, TennCare spokeswoman Sara Tanksley said. The comments came from emails and five public hearings, including one last month in Chattanooga. In all, the emails amounted to 2,272 pages.
Only nine comments from seven individuals and two organizations – one of them from Chattanooga-based insurer BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and one from a Florida-based conservative lobby group – offered explicit support. But BlueCross did have an issue on one provision.
Lee is developing the waiver of federal Medicaid rules at the direction of fellow Republicans, who control the state Legislature.