Small Businesses Interested in Tennessee Plan To Insure 185,000 Workers, But Coverage Levels Uncertain

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) on Wednesday told small-business representatives that his plan to provide health insurance for as many as 185,000 residents over the next three years "will only work if small business sees it as a solution," the Knoxville News-Sentinel reports. Bredesen on Monday presented the Cover Tennessee plan, which would provide participants with a $50 monthly subsidy toward $150 health insurance premiums. Employers with 25 or fewer workers could provide an additional $50. Bredesen told members of the National Federation of Independent Business that if the plan is "rejected en masse [by business], it will be very difficult to make work." Gary Selvy, state director of NFIB, said he immediately plans to survey NFIB's 10,000 Tennessee members on Bredesen's proposal. "I think our members will find it attractive," Selvy said (Ferrar, Knoxville News-Sentinel, 3/30). Bredesen on Tuesday said that insurers would put together proposals to offer health benefits for $150 a month and that the state would select two companies to participate. Larry Levitt, a Kaiser Family Foundation vice president, said beneficiaries "certainly can't get a lot" of coverage for $150 a month. Sandra Hunt of PriceWaterhouseCoopers said the policies "would likely need to have some cost sharing, either in deductibles or coinsurance." Bredesen did not comment on possible deductibles or copayments (Pack, Tennessean, 3/29). State House Minority Leader Bill Dunn (R) said he is worried about "raising people's expectations" if the policies turn out to be "a piece of paper as opposed to an insurance policy" (Schrade, Tennessean, 3/28). State Sen. Diane Black (R) said, "If you do have 300,000 people show up and want to be a part of this, are we going to end up in court if we turn people away?" Bredesen said the program would have a "reasonable buildup over the next three years" (Seibert, Tennessean, 3/29).