Mon
Sep 23 2019
12:17 pm
Tennessee Medicaid block grant
By: R. Neal

Nashville Post: State releases TennCare block grant proposal

The grant would be calculated based on per-capita health care spending projections and could be increased based on TennCare enrollment. Tennessee officials believe they can manage the government-sponsored insurance program more efficiently than the federal government and are proposing that any savings accrued from that supposed efficiency be split with the state.

Nashville Scene: TennCare Block Grant Plan Is the Latest Scheme to Deny Health Care to the Poor

...Lee's proposal isn't some nifty innovation to make our investments in health smarter or more efficient. He's volunteering Tennessee for the frontlines of Trump and the national Republican party's war on subsidized health care.

Me (with apologies to P.J. O'Rourke): Block grants are like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

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bizgrrl's picture

From the Chattanooga Times

Submitted by bizgrrl on Mon, 2019/09/23 - 12:41pm.

From the Chattanooga Times Free Press:

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J. "wrote to [U.S. Health and Human Services] Sec. Azar this summer reminding him HHS does not have legal authority to implement a block grant or per capita cap on the Medicaid program,"
...
Pallone warned the secretary that it would require changing federal law to permit Medicaid block grants. And he noted that in 2017, "Congress considered and rejected converting Medicaid to a block grant or per capita cap when such a change was a centerpiece of the failed Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Of course, TN and Gov. Lee assume when going along with the Trump admin they can get away with anything.

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