NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposal to extend health coverage to 280,000 low-income Tennesseans has failed during a special legislative session after nearly two years of negotiating with federal officials.
The Senate Health Committee defeated the Republican governor’s Insure Tennessee plan on a 7-4 vote Wednesday.
Even though lawmakers who voted against the plan said their decision was more policy-related than personal, the defeat was nonetheless a stinging rebuke to the governor, who breezed to re-election with 70 percent of the vote. He had toured the state touting the plan and opened the special session Monday evening with an impassioned plea for its passage.
“I’m disappointed,” Haslam told reporters after the vote. “We made a decision today, but we didn’t do anything to answer the problem; and the problem is there’re hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans who need health care.”
Haslam spent 21 months talking with federal officials for a special deal for Tennessee that included market-based elements such as vouchers to buy private insurance, co-pays and assurances that the state could pull out of the deal if it ended up being more expensive than expected.