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TennCare: Issue Briefs

TennCare cuts cost us all

1. The governor cut $650 million in state TennCare spending, and that cut cost Tennesseans $1.2 BILLION in federal funds - That is $1.2 BILLION that would otherwise have come into Tennessee to help pay for Tennesseans’ health care. We told the Federal Government to keep it.
   
   
2. A University of Tennessee study estimates that for every $100 million in state funds cut from TennCare, there is a negative economic impact of $289 million and a loss of 2,685 jobs.
   
   
3. A separate study, also from UT, estimates the cuts will result in an additional premature death every 36 hours.
   
   
4. Tennessee hospitals – particularly rural hospitals who got a great deal of their revenue from TennCare – are at great financial risk. The Tennessee Hospital Association estimates that 20 hospitals could close because of these cuts.
   
   
5. Think about that – what happens in a rural community when its only hospital closes? Will the doctors and nurses stay? Will employers have to pay more for workers comp insurance? Will it be harder to attract new employers to the area?
   
   
6. And how will hospitals afford to care for people who come to the emergency room – people who are in such bad shape they can’t be turned away? They’ll shift that cost to insured and private-pay patients.
   
   
7. There are other hidden costs to these cuts. Across the state, local jails are seeing more arrests of mentally ill people cut from TennCare. In Davidson County, the local jail is the largest provider of mental health services because so many have lost access to their medication and have committed crimes. That hits county taxpayers, costing much more than it would have cost to keep these mentally ill people on their medication.
   
   
8. Of the 191,000 Tennesseans being cut entirely, many have jobs or are caregivers for a loved one. What happens when these people are unable to work or provide care? In those cases, TennCare has not just cut health care, but the ability to care for and support a family – making those families more dependent on taxpayer support, not less so.
   
   
9. Across the state, TennCare cuts have hurt enrollees who need more than five medicines. They have to choose which five to get, and hope for the best. Many are dying slowly. Others are deteriorating to the point that they require expensive hospitalization that costs much more than medicine would have cost. Some will end up needing a nursing home, and that average cost is $36,000 a year.

Tennessee cannot afford these cuts. It CAN afford a well-managed program that provides cost-effective care to those who need it.

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