Senate Passes Cover Tennessee

The state senate passed the Cover Tennessee bill today–again. 

The senate had already passed Governor Phil Bredesen’s health insurance initiative last week, but had to re-visit the bill today after the house chamber made several changes.  One of those changes was to relieve the insurance companies of financial responsibility for medical costs exceeding the proposed 150-dollar per month premium.

The house provision requires the state to assume all financial risk until 20-10.  Several senate republicans, including republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Bryson, didn’t agree with the house.

“The question I have is if the insurance carriers don’t think that this is a good enough plan for them to take a risk in, why do we think that government is smart enough to be able to do it.”

 

Bryson says not requiring the insurers to be at risk is an incentive for plans to become part of the program.  He says he fears the program will quickly mirror TennCare’s past financial arrangement, a situation which has been decried as causing TennCare to financially falter in the late 1990’s. 

But Bryson voted for the bill, along with the rest of his colleagues to pass it unanimously.  The bill now goes to the governor.