March 9, 2004

TennCare Update

I write regularly here about the Tennessee state budget and tax policy, but my Tennessee readers may wonder why I rarely write about TennCare (our state's Medicaid-plus program) and the governor's plans to reform it. Simple answer: I haven't taken the time to get really knowledeable about it. I know it's big, costs a fortune, is riddled with waste and fraud, and was allowed to run amok during the previous governor's second term in order to bleed the state treasury and create a fiscal crisis so he could try to pass an income tax. But I don't know enough of the details of the program itself to be able to write well enough about it to justify your time to read it. That said, this month's newsletter from state Rep. Glen Casada, my state representative, lays it out pretty well. The good news is, after the previous governor lied to us and told us TennCare wasn't the cause of the state's budget problems and it had already been fixed, our new governor, a former healthcare executive, is fixing the mess and balancing the state budget without raising taxes by even one thin dime.