Tagged: affordable care act

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam says Tennessee will not create a state-run health insurance exchange, but the Republican governor says he remains undecided about whether to expand Medicaid.

Haslam said the lack of information from the federal government about the insurance marketplaces was "scary" and that that he considered it a business decision to let the federal government run the program.

Haslam acknowledged that getting a state-run exchange approved by the Legislature would be a difficult prospect.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Former Senate Majority Leader and Tennessee heart surgeon Bill Frist is calling on states to get going on their health insurance exchanges.

The exchanges are part of the Affordable Care Act and some Republican governors who oppose the law are refusing to set them up.

The Tennessee Republican writes in an opinion piece for The Week magazine that the idea for state exchanges originated with the GOP. He calls them innovative and market-driven.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — The head of the Tennessee Hospital Association says the entire state will suffer if TennCare isn’t expanded under the new federal health care law.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld most of the Affordable Care Act, but justices struck down a mandate for states to expand their Medicaid programs.

Tennessee Hospital Association President Craig Becker says the state’s hospitals are already spending $1.2 billion dollars a year treating patients who can’t pay, and those costs are spiraling out of control.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (BURRISS)  --  If you’re looking for a lesson in how not to do journalism, last week’s Supreme Court decision on health care provides a number of lessons.

Did you see the initial reports on CNN and Fox? If you didn’t, well, you didn’t miss much, because they both got it wrong. In their haste to be first with the news, both networks reported the court found the insurance mandate unconstitutional. The reporters apparently just tried to skim through the 193-page opinion in a matter of seconds, and got it totally wrong.