Cover Tennessee Featured in Wall Street Journal, April 18, 2007

The Cover Tennessee initiative was featured in the April 18 Wall Street Journal (front page)

• Follow this link to the article (subscription required)
• Follow this link for an interactive map on the uninsured
  

Quoted from the article:

[People] in the program only get coverage up to $25,000 for health expenses annually, and only $15,000 of that can go to hospital bills. If she becomes seriously ill or has a major accident, [they will] be just as vulnerable as [they were] before. [They will] have to either pay the bills herself or ask the hospital for charity care.

The limits put Tennessee in sharp contrast with Massachusetts and California, two other states that are part of the U.S. trend toward reconsidering universal coverage. Plans in the two states envision people paying more of their own medical bills at first, in exchange for protection against catastrophic costs.

In an interview, Gov. Bredesen says he listened to focus groups and queried blue-collar folks, such as a waitress at a waffle restaurant, to devise his plan. "They weren't interested in buying insurance for catastrophic events. They wanted access to the emergency room next month, access to the pharmacy next month," he says. "Let's give people what they want instead of what some advocate says they want."

The governor says the working poor can't afford $2,000 deductibles, and he questions whether Massachusetts and California can pay for their more-ambitious plan