INSURE TENNESSEE Action Toolkit

Transcription

1 INSURE TENNESSEE Action Toolkit For people in the Healthcare Coverage Gap and their advocates

2 On February 4, the state Senate committee on Health voted NO on the Governor s plan to provide health care for all low income Tennesseans: INSURE TENNESSEE. This toolkit is designed to help you change that outcome for 280,000 low income Tennesseans who need access to health care. Insure Tennessee would provide health coverage for low income Tennesseans people in low wage jobs, part time workers with families, veterans. The Governor s plan is smart, and unique to Tennessee, a model for the rest of the country. Your offer to help educate your friends and neighbors is generous, and critical. A recent survey conducted by MTSU reveals that most Tennesseans do not know much about Insure Tennessee. But once they do know, they really want to do the right thing. Energizing your neighbors is KEY to the closing the Gap THANK YOU For all you do to ensure access to health care for the most vulnerable among us. Teach you neighbors. Contact your legislators. You will make the difference. Print any pages of the toolkit to use as handouts or reference. IF YOU NEED A WORD DOCUMENT so that you can add your own language or brand, mecker@tnjustice.org. For more information about the Gap, see TJC s website: /gap For comments on this toolkit or how to make it a better toolkit, contact Margaret Ecker at mecker@tnjustice.org

3 THE GAP Who is in the Gap? You don t have any health care coverage, you don t make enough money to get Obamacare and you re not eligible for TennCare. The Gap is closer than you think: Up to 280,000 low income Tennesseans have no access to affordable care. 24,000 are veterans. Hospitals are closing. Hospital workers are losing jobs. Rural communities are losing access to hospitals.

4 TRUE GAP: stories about real people struggling in the Gap 21 yo woman, graduating from college this May. She will lose her health care coverage when she graduates. Unless she finds full time work that provides insurance she can afford, she will be forced to live in the Gap for the first time in her life. Insure Tennessee would provide the safety net she needs until she gets her feet on the ground after college. 50yo man, low income, worked on a landscaping crew until back injury and arthritis made physical labor impossible about one year ago. Even when he was working, the work was seasonal and sporadic, and he did not make enough money to afford health insurance. He wants medical help for his arthritis so he can return to work, but he cannot afford to see a doctor. Insure Tennessee would provide the bridge he needs to get healthy and return to the work he loves. 49yo man, low income, formerly worked as short order cook and janitor. As a minimum wage earner all his life, he never had health insurance. He had to pay out of pocket for any health care. A massive heart attack four years ago resulted in $300,000 in unpaid hospital bills. He works part time, now, when he can find work. Without health care coverage, he cannot afford the medications he should be taking. He cannot afford physical therapy prescribed. He spent more time in the hospital recently for new chest pains. Insure Tennessee would allow him to get the help he needs to stay out of the emergency room and get back to work. Older married couple, children grown and on their own. Income around $7,500 a year. Husband worked full time as a patient care aide a local hospital until he was laid off after a shoulder injury left him unable to handle combative patients. He desperately wants to return to work. Wife works part time. Neither can afford doctor visits. Insure Tennessee would provide the safety net they deserve and let them get back to full time work.

5 INSURE TENNESSEE What is Insure Tennessee? Insure Tennessee is Governor Haslam s plan to use federal dollars to help 280,000 Tennesseans get health care coverage. Tennesseans who are eligible for Insure Tennessee have two choices: The Volunteer Plan will help working families buy their employer s insurance through financial assistance. The Healthy Incentives Plan will help families who are unemployed or who do not have insurance through their job get coverage through a new version of TennCare. Both of these programs offer an affordable option for Tennesseans to get health insurance. Without Insure Tennessee, all of these people are left without health care. Who will Insure Tennessee help? Insure Tennessee will provide health care coverage for 280,000 Tennesseans. The most vulnerable among us can t afford the support they need to get healthy and stay healthy. These Tennesseans include working Tennesseans with minimum wage jobs waitresses, janitors, and short order cooks, for example 24,000 Veterans who can t get VA benefits college students whose parents don t have insurance people who could get back to work if they could get healthy again In important ways, all Tennesseans will benefit from Insure Tennessee. Four hospitals have already closed in Tennessee because sick people without insurance can t pay their bills. Hospitals throughout Tennessee are at risk. Insure Tennessee would allow hospitals to stay open.

6 How is Insure Tennessee paid for? Governor Haslam negotiated an agreement to use federal money already set aside for Tennessee to pay for almost the entire cost of Insure Tennessee. Tennessee s hospitals have pledged to pay anything not covered by federal funds. To make sure Insure Tennessee never costs Tennessee taxpayers a dime, the Governor would end the program automatically if the federal money or hospital contributions ever fail to cover the full cost. Who supports Insure Tennessee? Business leaders, including the Tennessee Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce Health care leaders, including the Tennessee Hospital Association, the Tennessee Medical Association, and the Tennessee Nurses Association. Faith leaders across Tennessee Prominent Republicans, including Governor Bill Haslam, Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker, and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Local elected officials, including many mayors and county officials. Why Does Tennessee Need Insure Tennessee? It isn t just about the people who are uninsured it s about all of us. Hospitals need Insure Tennessee to stay open, especially in rural areas. 21,260 employees at 54 hospitals around the state are at risk of losing their jobs if we don t expand Insure Tennessee. When a community loses its hospital, it loses one of its largest employers, and its ability to recruit and retain doctors and other health care professionals. Insure Tennessee will protect a growing economy. Without healthy hospitals, how can a community hope to recruit new industry? Tennessee is giving up $2.7 million dollars of federal money every day, money that was earmarked just for Tennessee. Insure Tennessee will keep our federal tax dollars here in Tennessee, helping our friends, families and neighbors, and creating jobs. What YOU Can Do Contact YOUR state senator and state legislator. The message: make InsureTN happen. Call to get directly connected.

7 WHAT YOU CAN DO Contact YOUR state senator and state legislator. The message: make InsureTN happen. Call to get directly connected. Constituent calls to the SPONSORS OF THE BILL remain a powerful, necessary action. The message: thank you for your leadership and for your courage. Senate Sponsor: Sen. Doug Overbey: , sen.doug.overbey@capitol.tn.gov House Sponsor: Rep. Gerald McCormick: , rep.gerald.mccormick@capitol.tn.gov Constituent calls to thank the FOUR SENATORS WHO VOTED YES remain a powerful action, necessary action. The message: Thank you for your courage and leadership. Sen. Becky Duncan Massey: (615) , sen.becky.massey@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Ed Jackson: (615) , sen.ed.jackson@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Jeff Yarbro: (615) , sen.jeff.yarbro@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Richard Briggs: (615) , sen.richard.briggs@capitol.tn.gov Constituent calls to the SEVEN SENATORS WHO VOTED NO remain a powerful, necessary action. The message: what s your plan now? Sen. Brian Kelsey: (615) , sen.brian.kelsey@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Mike Bell: (615) , sen.mike.bell@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Janice Bowling: (615) , sen.janice.bowling@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Todd Gardenhire: (615) , sen.todd.gardenhire@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Frank Niceley: (615) , sen.frank.niceley@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Kerry Roberts: (615) , sen.kerry.roberts@capitol.tn.gov Sen. Rusty Crowe: (615) , sen.rusty.crowe@capitol.tn.gov To share what you hear back from legislator contacts, rclifton@tnjustice.org To share creative ideas about How to Teach about InsureTN, kalexander@tnjustice.org To connect with the Gap StoryBank: GAP3