Current Tennessee insurance issues as of February 2010Tennessee insurance affordability and availability issues are predictable for an politically, socially and economically conservative red state.
Tennessee makes me think of Nashvile. Nashville makes me think of country music. Country music makes me thing of right-wing politics which tends not to go hand in hand with progressive health care ideas. It's near the worst in the country in obesity
rankings at 47th, 45th in prevalence of smoking, 40th in impoverished children, 40th in air pollution and 46th in preventable hospitalizations. Curiously, it ranks only 3rd in
the country in binge drinking and it's the home of the Jack Daniels distillery. It also does well in immunizations, ranking 4th. It's true that it's not fantastic in terms of percentage of uninsured residents, but it's not in the bottom ten either. However the percentage of uninsured in this state is a growing problem with an estimated 12 percent of Tennesseans or roughly 771,000 people project to without insurance for the entire year in 2010. On the immediate horizon, legislations was passed recently in Tennessee meant to counter the federal health care reform's possible mandate to purchase health insurance. State Senator Mae Beavers states that she's attempting to protect Tennesseans by this type of bill. Their efforts at extending more coverage to Tennesseans include Tenncare, a state-sponsored universal healthcare/single payor plan launched in 1994 which went over budget and eventually morphed into CoverTN, which provides a maximum of $25,000 in coverage and is not quite as affordable as Tenncare.
Do you have a different opinion of health coverage in this state?Health coverage policies and laws obviously can change. If your experience with getting health coverage is different than what is written above, or if you just want to share your experiences with health coverage, please feel free. |