Updated 2/11/09
The rumor mill is circulating with possible names for the new Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Among those names is Tennessee’s Democratic governor, Phil Bredesen. Despite what Republican opponents and MoveOn.org say about the matter, he would be an excellent choice.
Bredesen knows what it’s like to insure a large population of unhealthy people who have low incomes. He understands the needs, and he has found a way to provide coverage with little support from the federal government and much opposition from state Republicans and idealistic health advocates.
When faced with cutting scores of chronically-ill patients from the rolls of TennCare, the state plan for the poor and uninsurable, Bredesen flew to Washington more than once. The past administration denied his repeated requests for changes to the Medicaid waiver that covered the plan.
Around that time, some Republican candidates for the state legislature openly campaigned and won seats on a platform of reforming the plan. They claimed it was rife with fraud and blocked Bredesen’s efforts to change and save it. The office that investigates such matters has since found little evidence to support those claims.
Republicans and health care advocates, who didn’t understand the big picture and refused to compromise, then smeared Bredesen’s name in the press and blamed him for the cuts when voters who lost their coverage became angry. But Bredesen was faced with competing challenges. He faced those challenges as total federal contributions to the state budget decreased.
Health care costs in Tennessee were taking money that was needed for education and other priorities. Bredesen understood that a person with a good education could afford private insurance or get one of the few jobs that still offered a group plan. He used the money he saved to expand pre-kindergarten programs in the state.
He also understands that education is important because the good jobs of today require highly-skilled workers. Having more workers with good jobs expands the tax base that is needed to support vital services and lowers the tax burden for all.
Tennessee has lost many of the manufacturing jobs that supported middle class families in the last few decades. Most of those jobs have been replaced with low-paying jobs in the service and retail sectors that don’t offer health insurance.
Governor Bredesen has personally experienced the high cost of not having insurance. His own brother died because he was uninsured. Since then, Bredesen has created a plan to cover the people who were cut from TennCare with a combination of public and private funds. Additional plans cover small businesses, children, and those who have lost their jobs.
Before the current economic crisis, Bredesen did all these things with a balanced budget and without raising taxes. Like everywhere else, sales and property tax revenues have plummeted.
Tennessee also doesn’t have a state income tax. Republicans almost incited a riot the last time Democrats tried to enact one.
Republicans once again distorted these and other facts and took advantage of low information voters (LIVs) to gain control of the state Senate in the last election. They are one vote short of controlling the House. Republican Deputy Speaker of the House Steve McDaniel has openly admitted that funding services in the current situation will be the most challenging task he has faced in his entire tenure in the legislature, and he doesn’t know where to start.
Governor Bredesen deserves the nomination. He’s a big boy who knows how to get the job done in a hostile political climate like the one in Washington.
An earlier report stated that Republican Tennessee State Senator Steve McDaniel was Speaker Pro Tem. He is Deputy Speaker of the House, and soon may be named temporary speaker. The speaker, Independent Kent Williams, is away tending to his sick mother, and the Speaker Pro Tem, Democrat Lois DeBerry, is recovering from an unspecified illness.
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Jacqueline Laurette Jones is author of Unmasking a Diagnosis: How to get Help for a Confusing Chronic Illness Without Filing for Bankruptcy.
