The Governor Gets His National Attention

Posted by Mary Mancini on September 1, 2005 under Uncategorized |

“The word in Tennessee is that Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, has presidential aspirations. I find that interesting. Perhaps he can run on the success he’s had throwing sick people off of Medicaid.

Thanks to Mr. Bredesen’s leadership, Tennessee is dumping nearly 200,000 residents, some of them desperately ill, from TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program. Cindy Mann, a research professor and executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute, concisely characterized the governor’s efforts:

“What he’s decided to do is save health care costs simply by not giving people health care.”

How’s that for a solution to a tough public policy issue?”

More from Bob Herbert in today’s NY Times here.

Also, Malcom Gladwell writes about “The Moral Hazard Myth” in the New Yorker. The real moral hazard is, of course, the difficulty most Americans have in obtaining, or keeping, affordable health care. When did taking care of our people become a chore? A commodity? Not a priority?