Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) announced Tuesday that she has appointed a Healthcare Task Force for the purposes of improving access to care. It is called the 3-Star Healthy Project. Speaker Harwell was joined by the members of the task force and Governor Bill Haslam.
She said, “A little over a year ago, shortly after Insure Tennessee failed to receive the support needed from the House and Senate to advance, I reached out to experts in health policy at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine.
“These informal, information-seeking discussions led to an even greater interest on the part of members desiring to engage and determine the feasibility of these ideas. In order to put some structure to these concepts we have been discussing, I am announcing today the formation of a task force that will delve into these ideas and formulate a specific proposal. I have asked the task force to complete its work in such time that we could, as a group along with the Governor, meet with CMS in June.”
The Healthcare Task Force members who will work on the 3-Star Healthy Project are Rep. Cameron Sexton, chair; Rep. Matthew Hill, vice-chair; Rep. Steve McManus and Rep. Roger Kane.
Officials of the Tennessee Justice Center said, "Making it possible for working Tennesseans to have health coverage is an urgent challenge that affects us all in one way or another. We are grateful that Speaker Harwell is taking up leadership on this issue, for there is an enormous amount at stake. The test of that leadership will be whether it produces a solution that meets the urgent needs of working families, of our struggling rural hospitals and of our state’s economy."
Following the announcement to launch a comprehensive health care task force to study and identify alternatives to insure the working poor in Tennessee, Senator Mark Green, MD said he encourages immediate movement of SJR 88, the TennCare Opt Out pilot program which will enroll low-income Medicaid-eligible participants into a health savings account pilot which incentivizes positive health behaviors and permits patient control and choice.
He said, "Expanding an already failing system through Obamacare is not an option and only a typical response of government bureaucrats. Healthcare innovation must include the approach that places the paying customer, the patient, in control of their personal healthcare choices and care through incentives.”
The pilot program will enroll volunteer participants whose income qualifies them for temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) in a newly-created TennCare flexible savings account initiative. Enrollees would receive an electronic benefits transfer (EBT) card funded by premiums paid by TennCare to purchase primary care services and medications on an annual basis. Electronic payment is made immediately to treating physicians which reduces administrative costs and encourages provider participation. Patients in the demonstration program with funds remaining in the health savings account at the year’s end keep those dollars as a reward for their healthier choices that have maintained wellness and their effective budgeting of spending.
“The TennCare Opt Out pilot will align the goals of patients, providers and taxpayers who know the best way to reduce the cost of something is by putting the consumer in charge,” said Senator Green, a practicing physician who serves as vice chairman of the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee.
He said SJR 88 is projected to save Tennessee just over $6.8 million as calculated by the Fiscal Review Committee of the General Assembly. The resolution has passed the Tennessee House Committee on Insurance and Banking and awaits review in the House subcommittee on Finance. It has passed Tennessee Senate Committee on Labor and Commerce and is on the current calendar for Senate Finance, Ways and Means.
State Democrats hit the move, calling it "yet another delay after four years of no action for the uninsured."
"A charade - politics at its worst," state Rep. Mike Stewart said. "After four years of no action on Medicaid expansion or Insure Tennessee, four years of preventable deaths and shuttered hospitals, we demand more than just another task force to maybe start to put together a plan."
"We're leaving $2 billion on the table and 280,000 Tennesseans without health insurance," state Rep. Bo Mitchell said. "They need more than a logo and a task force. They need a real plan. They thought they had one already."
"If legislators went three years without health insurance, we would see more today than just another task force," state Senator Jeff Yarbro said. "We would have seen action a long time ago. Instead, the leadership is comfortable enough with their own health insurance to set up a task force while 280,000 Tennesseans continue to wait."
"I am disappointed to see the makeup of the committee today, which looks nothing like the people of Tennessee," state Rep. Brenda Gilmore said. "It is going to be hard for a committee with no women, with no minorities, and no health professionals, to come up with a plan that will actually serve the needs of this state."
"The so-called "3-Star" proposal unveiled today deserves a rating of 'two thumbs down' from Tennessee families," state Rep. John Ray Clemmons said. "How embarrassing it must have been for the governor to stand there and watch his signature piece of legislative policy be reduced to nothing before his own eyes. Regardless, we will continue the fight for Insure Tennessee and families who need access to quality, affordable healthcare."