Tennessee to Keep Medicaid for Children

Gov. Phil Bredesen announced Monday that he would drop 323,000 adults from the state’s expanded Medicaid program to save $1.6 billion a year, but would preserve health coverage for children.

The announcement capped weeks of negotiations between Bredesen and healthcare advocates in an effort to save a Tennessee program that offered coverage to the working poor who make too much money to qualify for regular Medicaid.

The governor’s plan ends coverage for adults who make more than the Medicaid cutoff, but retains it for more than 100,000 children whose families fall in that category.

“I say to you with a clear heart that I’ve tried everything,” the Democratic governor said.

“There is no big lump of federal money that will make the problem go away. It is just not there,” he said.

The governor has said court settlements that forced Tennessee to raise the level of coverage it provided meant it could not afford to continue with the expanded program.

Bredesen had announced in November that he intended to return to basic Medicaid, ending coverage for all 430,000 adults and children, because of mushrooming costs.