Tennessee lawmakers deadlocked over TennCare block grant bill

May 02-- May 2--NASHVILLE -- State House and Senate Republicans conferees deadlocked Thursday over a controversial bill to direct Gov. Bill Lee's administration to negotiate a new TennCare federal Medicaid waiver dramatically restructuring Washington's financial support for the state's health care program for the poor.

It came as lawmakers hope to wrap up their months-long annual session Thursday afternoon or evening.

Both chambers have passed differing versions of the bill and five members of each chamber held a joint conference hoping to iron out difference over the plan that seeks current federal financial support be converted into an annual lump sum known as a block grant that has far fewer federal strings on how it's spent.

Republicans here say they can run a more efficient version of TennCare, a $12 billion program about 1.3 million low income pregnant women, mothers and their children as well as some disabled and elderly Tennesseans.

Advocates for the poor and Democrats, however, are shuddering over the potential impact. A dozen national patients' groups, including the the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and American Lung Association, are urging Republican Gov. Lee and lawmakers to "reject" the bill, warning it "will jeopardize Medicaid enrollees' access to care."

All five House members of the joint conference committee -- the four Republicans, including Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, and the lone Democrat, Yusuf Hakeem of Chattanooga -- voted against the proposed report offered up by Sen. Paul Bailey, R-Sparta, who led Senate conferees.

Rep. Timothy Hill, R-Blountville, the bill's House sponsor, said Senate language for the proposed conference committee report sought to put too many pre-conditions on Republican Gov. Lee's administration.

"We want to be able to have high quality discussions with the feds if at all possible," Hill said. "However, I have concerns that we're tying the hands of the [Lee] administration."

Hakeem later said he opposes turning federal support of TennCare into a block grant.

Earlier, Bailey and Sens. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, and Mike Bell, R-Riceville, voted for it. The two Senate Democrats voted against it.

Hill was particularly put out by Bailey's language that says the Lee administration "must" seek a block grant is indexed for population growth, inflation and other factors in determining the base amount of money.

The Senate language also opens up the possibility of bringing new groups on to TennCare.

Currently, federal spending for states' jointly funded Medicaid programs matches whatever a state spends, based on a variety of factors.

For TennCare, the federal government now pays 65.87 percent or $7.5 billion of the Tennessee program's total $12.1 billion cost.

Contact Andy Sher at [email protected] or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.

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