TennCare cuts to hit county hard
Almost a third of Warren County’s TennCare enrollees will lose their health insurance if Gov. Phil Bresesen’s proposed cuts take effect.
According to figures released this week, 3,244 of the 10,600 Warren countians currently on TennCare will receive notification over the next few months they have been cut from the rolls.
Some health care advocates have noted the cuts are going to affect many who represent segments of the population the program was originally designed to help. Almost half of those who will be cut, 151,621, are officially below the federal poverty level, and the majority, 60 percent, are women.
The only group of enrollees who are coming out unscathed are children, who will experience no change in their coverage under Bredesen’s plan.
Warren County residents who depend on TennCare for their insurance are concerned. Some feel Bredesen’s actions will put them in a difficult, and perhaps insurmountable, situation for obtaining health insurance.
Carl Adcock, who is self-employed as a siding and guttering subcontractor, has been on TennCare since 1995 and says he feels he is a prime candidate to be cut from the rolls. For him, and many like him, the outlook is pretty bleak since he has several chronic conditions.
“Lloyd’s of London wouldn’t insure me,” Adcock said, adding he understands reform is necessary, but that losing his insurance could be devastating. “I never had a problem paying a premium, or whatever, as long as I could get some insurance. But the way it is now, I don’t have a say, and if I get sick, I’ll just have to die.”
Adcock feels pretty certain he will no longer be offered insurance.
“Oh yes, I’m going to get cut,” he said. “I’m uninsurable. I’ve got high blood pressure, overweight, sugar, any one of the three will condemn you.”
Adcock feels his age, 61, and conditions also severely limit his options, as far as insurance is concerned.
“I don’t have an alternative,” he said. “Who would you go to to even start to ask for insurance?”
Local residents Kathy and Rudie Thomsen are also on TennCare and Kathy is concerned the cuts will affect her husband who is currently self-employed with a home health care company as a physical therapist assistant. With TennCare premiums based on income, which for many self-employed varies widely, the couple has paid as much as $1,100 per month, but now pays around $600 per month, according to Kathy. Still, if the couple gets cut from the rolls, which Kathy feels is likely, Rudie will have to begin looking for another full-time job with a medical facility, even if that involves a cut in pay, just to have insurance.
“It’s going to force his hand,” Kathy says. “We have to have insurance. It’s too scary to go without it.”
Kathy feels Bredesen’s plan is going to be more of a problem for people who want to work and keep a job.
“It seems like the more you make the less the government helps you,” she said. “It’s going to be really hard on people who are self-employed.”
Like many, Kathy feels Bredesen’s plan will leave a lot hard-working Tennesseans in the lurch.
“I think it’s pretty sad,” she said.