Expanding Medicaid Perilous for Tennessee, Think Tank Warns

In a new op-ed, the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a Nashville-based free-market think tank, warned all Tennessee officials to resist temptations to expand Medicaid.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, for instance, is one of many politicians who want to make it happen.

Beacon Executive Vice President Stephanie Whitt, writing for KnoxNews.com, said there are several important matters to consider, not the least of which is the notion Tennessee gets free money.

“This is not free money,” Whitt said.

“Expansion would be paid for with new federal taxpayer dollars, borrowed from our children and grandchildren, that are not guaranteed in the future. This could potentially put our state at risk to either shell out additional state taxpayer dollars to cover the expanded population or go through the painful process of kicking hundreds of thousands of people off the program.”

Medicaid is expensive, Whitt said.

TennCare costs Tennesseans $12 billion, eating up nearly a third of the state’s $37.5 billion total budget, she said.

“To put that in perspective, Tennessee is spending approximately $32.8 million per day on TennCare,” Whitt said.

“It is simply unrealistic to think we can expand our TennCare population by a minimum of 250,000 people (some estimates put that number even higher) and be able to sustain the program over time.”

States that have expanded Medicaid, like Ohio, saw far greater enrollment than originally projected, Whitt said.

Whitt quoted a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee study that said Medicaid expansion increases a state’s opioid epidemic.

Expanding Medicaid, she went on to say, does not stop rural hospitals from closing.

“In Tennessee, there have been closures, but most are because of consolidations with other hospitals nearby or a reduction in local population,” Whitt said.

“Many of the facilities continue to provide access to care in some way such as urgent care, emergency care and outpatient services.”

Whitt suggested Tennessee residents expand tele-health opportunities and repeal anti-competitive certificate-of-need laws.

During a gubernatorial debate Tuesday night in Kingsport, Dean repeated his desire to expand Medicaid, according to The Washington Post.

Dean’s opponent, Republican Bill Lee, disagreed with Dean’s stance.

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].