Two Tennessee Republican lawmakers are hoping to expand health care coverage to hundreds of thousands of working poor, while Democrats are trying to turn back the state’s modified “block grant” program with the help of the new Biden administration.
Legislative Democrats sent a letter to President Joe Biden Monday asking him to rescind the “block grant” waiver approved in the final days of the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, Rep. Sam Whitson, a Franklin Republican, and Sen. Richard Briggs, a Knoxville Republican, have filed legislation they could use to initiate state insurance coverage for those caught between TennCare and expensive private health insurance plans.
“What this would do is target the working poor, those who are at 138% of the poverty level who cannot afford the premiums, who are working. They make too much to qualify for the block grant services, but the cost of premiums is so high it really puts them in a pickle,” Whitson said this week.
He hopes such a plan could help rural hospitals as well, since Tennessee has lost at least 13 to closure or major cutbacks since the Affordable Care Act took effect and the Legislature refused to expand Medicaid.