In the three years since federal officials approved Tennessee’s waiver to revamp the state’s Medicaid program, the lives of thousands Tennesseans have improved.
Through the restructured program, TennCare began covering dental services for 600,000 adults in 2023. States are required to provide dental services for people covered by Medicaid who are under 21 years of age, but the coverage is optional for adults.
Before expanding covered services to include dental care, Tennessee was one of three states without any dental coverage for all TennCare-eligible adults.
In addition to the adult dental benefit, TennCare has used money saved over the past few years in the restructured program to extend postpartum coverage for new mothers from six weeks to 12 months and to increase TennCare’s eligibility threshold for pregnant women to 250% of the federal poverty level, according to a Sunday Times Free Press report. The program also increases the eligibility threshold for parents and caretakers of children to 100% of the federal poverty level and offers lactation consulting as a benefit.
Gov. Bill Lee and the rest of the GOP believe that they achieved something positive for the state, and they did — to a point.