MYTH #19:
“Cutting TennCare is necessary in order to fund pre-K and other education programs, and to raise state employee salaries.”

REALITY

For every dollar in state funding that comes out of the TennCare budget, the state loses two dollars in federal match. The cuts have taken $1.2 billion in federal funds out of the state budget in the first year alone, with ever-increasing losses in federal funds in the future. If the seriously ill people TennCare once served no longer needed care, or no longer lived in Tennessee, those federal funds might not be missed, and there might actually be more state funds for education and state employee salaries. But the reality is that people who lose their TennCare will still be sick, some of them critically. The 30,000 patients with severe mental illness will still need care. Although they won’t get the care they need, people will eventually end up in hospitals or other institutions when their care becomes critical. The state will have to pick up some of those costs, and many more will get passed along to local taxpayers (in the form of higher hospital bills and insurance premiums.)1  The loss of federal funds on such a large scale will only intensify the competition for state and local tax dollars.

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