Posted on 06/21/2005 11:05:24 AM PDT by SmithL
NASHVILLE - Roughly two-dozen TennCare enrollees and advocates occupied the entrance to Gov. Phil Bredesen's office Monday, demanding that he change his mind on plans to cut the expanded Medicaid program.
The group wanted an audience with the governor, but Bredesen was in East Tennessee talking about his economic development plans.
A spokesman for the governor promised the group would be allowed to stay so long as they remained orderly and didn't interfere with workers. Arrangements were made to let the group stay overnight.
"This is a public building," said Bob Corney, the governor's communications director. He said the protesters would be allowed to stay overnight "out of an abundance of caution in trying to be reasonable." The protesters were initially told they would have to leave at closing time.
The protesters rebuffed a proposal from Bredesen to meet Wednesday morning. Leaders said the governor would have to meet other demands to get them to leave - or at a minimum open up any meeting to the public and all interested TennCare enrollees.
Lori Smith, a TennCare enrollee and one of the protesters, said they want an immediate halt to the disenrollment letters being mailed out this month. They also want the governor to stop plans to reduce benefits for many enrollees spared from the cuts.
Protester Randy Alexander of Memphis said about half a dozen of them would stay overnight in the governor's office, under the watch of state police.
Corney said the governor has spent a lot of time reviewing various options for the program before deciding that he needs to cut between 226,000 to 323,000 enrollees and reduce benefits to control costs that have been increasing by double-digit percentages nearly every year.
Now if only more republican governors had the balls to start throwing more people off medicare. NOt that i'd ever vote for bredesen, but i do respect the fact that he unlike the other 99% of his party would throw people off medicare to help balance the budget.
This is what happens when a government promises more than its taxpayers can or want to afford. It is going to be hard to be the Governor of Tennessee for a while ... until the TennCare mess is fixed. And the new Governor should remember that ...
You should never feed a bear -- it doesn't understand "all gone".
It's not like he has a job or anything to go in the morning anyway....
These people make me sick. They fought and fought and fought to get everything covered, and then when the well ran dry, they're screaming because there's nothing left.
I heard the Governor on the Halloran Hilton Hill show several months ago talking about what they've been forced to cover - the one that stood out most was a heroin addict's methadone treatment. Now, the treatment itself, that's one thing - but the TennCare was being forced to provide a rental car to the junkie so he could go back and forth for his methadone treatment. Gee - and a bus or taxi wasn't good enough?
You can thank Al Gore's cousin ole Nurd Ray McWherter for the Tenn Care mess!!!!!!!!!
What he's saved by this action he will in turn plow into his precious new $250 Million PRE-K program...another bottomless pit for tax dollars with no appreciable returns.
Didnt know that, thanks for letting me know. I guess there is a reason you guys call him Pharoh Phil down there.
What is worse our GOP senators and reps for the most part went along with this new boondoggle. They voted 25M seed money for the first go round on the universal pre-k despite evidence in abundance that it doesn't have much appreciable long lasting value.
Yuck, sounds like all those RINOs in 1992 who were calling bill clinton the real conservative in the race.
It's more cowardice of being seen as being against educating kids, than anything else.
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