NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam insists he's not giving up on his Insure Tennessee proposal to extend health coverage to 280,000 low-income people in the state, though he says he doesn't have any specific plans for resurrecting the measure this year.
Haslam told editors and publishers attending a Tennessee Press Association luncheon in Nashville on Thursday that he was frustrated by the measure's defeat, surprised by lawmakers' level of mistrust of the federal government and embarrassed by the number of times he called U.S. Health and Human Resources Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell to hammer out the failed deal.
Despite broad support from hospitals, doctors and chambers of commerce, Haslam said proponents failed to "move the needle" among fellow Republican lawmakers opposed to the plan. A Senate committee killed the measure Wednesday.