A 21st Century Tennessee Requires 21st Century Healthcare for All
The COALITION FOR A STRONG TENNESSEE is a bipartisan, state-wide organization.
The Coalition aims to increase public awareness of the financial and social benefits of providing comprehensive, high quality health coverage to all Tennesseans. This can be achieved at no additional cost to Tennessee taxpayers. Therefore, the Coalition will encourage our elected officals to support our goal of bringing our tax dollars back to Tennessee for this purpose.
The Coalition recognizes that, while the Affordable Care Act is not perfect, the Medicaid Expansion option offered to individual states pursuant to the ACA is currently the optimal choice to provide health coverage to 300,000 very low-income Tennesseans. Republican Governor, Bill Haslam, crafted a plan called Insure Tennessee that was supported by more than 65% of Tennesseans, by the Tennessee Hospital Association, economic development entities and by virtually every non-profit organization and religious body in Tennessee.
Currently, Tennessee tax money is diverted to other states that have expanded their Medicaid programs pursuant to the ACA. Had the Tennessee legislature voted to expand Medicaid at the first opportunity in 2014, over $8.4 billion of our tax dollars would have returned to Tennessee to support our rural hospitals and clinics and to provide healthcare to our most vulnerable citizens. We will never get that money back. We can, however, prevent additional tax funds from being diverted to other states in the future.
The Coalition recognizes that only comprehensive health coverage will create the healthy, vibrant workforce required by the demands of the 21st century.
