Tea Party Tries to Kill Medicare in Tennessee!

If the Tea Party has it's way,  Medicare Could Be Taken Over by TennCare!

On April 5, this Tuesday morning, the House Health and Human Resources sub-committee will vote on House Bill 0369, Health Care Compact, putting TennCare in charge of your Medicare. In a Compact there are no guarantees of benefits and coverage. It comes with a lick and a promise. "We have seen those promises before," says Beth Uselton, "and over 300,000 Tennesseans lost their coverage under Governor Bredesen." If passed by the sub-committee and by the full House of Representatives, the bill would require Tennessee to join the Health Care Compact.  The Compact would withdraw Tennessee from all federal health care programs, including Medicare, and put TennCare in charge. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Call members of the House Health Sub-committee - this weekend and again on Monday -  Ask them to vote against the Compact bill State Legislators leave Nashville on Thursday at noon and return on Monday afternoon. Members of the House sub-committee need to hear from you. Click here for talking points. Call toll free. Click here to get a list of legislators to call. ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Read the fiscal note about Medicare by clicking this picture.

"Good God, Tennessee can't even manage TennCare, how do they think they can manage the rest? Please oh please leave my medicare alone!" That is a comment left by a reader of the Knoxville News-Sentinal after the paper ran this article explaining the bill and its effect in Tennessee. The reader has cause for concern. If this bill is passed, TennCare would take over the administration of Medicare for over one million seniors and people with disabilities in Tennessee.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------

What is the Health Care Compact? Interstate compacts create multi-state agreements to address problems such as transportation issues, water rights or environmental protection.  Compact agreements, which have to be passed by state legislatures, then approved by Congress and signed by the President, override federal law.   Proponents of the state Health Care Compact are using it as a political strategy to try and opt out of the new federal health care law and exempt Tennessee from the requirements of it, including the protections, benefits and new rights to health care afforded to Tennesseans.  This strategy is being backed by the Tea Party and pushed by a new front group, the Health Care Compact Alliance.