TASTE OF WHAT KERRY WOULD HAVE DONE WITH OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

Wheww! Close call with our healthcare system. Thank the Almighty, Bush was elected!

Innovative health plan overwhelms Tennessee

By Dahleen Glanton
Tribune national correspondent
Novermber 20, 2004

Faced with a $250 million budget deficit 10 years ago, largely due to rising Medicaid costs, Tennessee came up with a novel idea. It would establish a low-cost managed health-care system, bring thousands of uninsured people into the program and fill its coffers with matching federal Medicaid dollars.

The TennCare program for a while was hailed nationally as a successful model for managed health care. But now the program has spiraled out of control, costing $7.8 billion a year and forcing the governor last week to threaten to shut it down unless he can implement reforms. That would leave 430,000 people without any form of health care. (full article)