NASHVILLE – Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke is partnering with a Nashville-based nonprofit health care advocacy group to locate and help more than 5,500 low-income Hamilton County children who lost their state-sponsored health insurance.
“When you’re at the doctor with a sick child you shouldn’t have to worry about if your health care insurance has lapsed,” the mayor said in a statement. “We are going to do everything we can to work with these families to get them back on their plans.”
Berke is partnering with the Tennessee Justice Center.
Michele Johnson, the Justice Center’s executive director, and allies announced earlier this week that an estimated 128,000 children statewide were purged over the last two years from two programs that provide them with health coverage.
One is TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income pregnant women and families. The other is CoverKids, the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program that provides health insurance to uninsured children.