Thursday, September 4, 2008

Act now to stop inhumane TennCare cuts to people forced to stay home because of disability

Away from the conventions, real life and political cowardice come become more of a burden in Tennessee.

Across the state this month, more than 1,000 people medically debilitated and forced to stay inside their homes willl be left to fend for themselves because Gov. Phil Bredesen's promises are no better than Confederate currency.

The problem is that officials with TennCare, the state's Medicaid program, say that home health care with 24-hour nursing for human beings among us has become too expensive. That's despite Bredesen -- who supposedly is over TennCare as an icon of a successful businessman -- getting legislation into law that he said would make home health care more affordable to taxpayers.

It was reasoned, and rightly so, that home health care is preferable to nursing home care for these good people now on edge morally and economically. Nursing homes, no matter how well they are run, are places people go to die. That truth cannot be overcome or rationalized away.

TennCare says, however, that nursing home care is preferable if family members of debilitated human beings cannot spend more time caring for them. Well, those family members are out working one or two jobs so food can be kept on the table, utilities kept on, clothes purchased and rent or mortgage payments made.

Meanwhile, Bredesen stays silent over his latest failure to govern. The legislation he touted, the Long Term Care Community Choices Act, does not take effect until July 1, 2009. There is no reason that TennCare cannot wait until that act takes law so that families can have the time to make the tough decisions on putting loved ones into nursing homes, or loved ones can file appeals not to lose their nursing care.

Health care is a very personal decision. So is how to care for your loved one. But TennCare is trying to cram down a one-size-fits-all atrocity containing only two options. God forgive us.

The same thing happened before I came down with leukemia in Dec. 2005. The governor had enacted shocking cuts that threw many human beings off TennCare, going against his campaign promise to fix the program not gut it. For six months until January 2005 when Medicare drug prescription benefits would be enabled, Bredesen left Tennessee senior citizens without any help to pay for their life-sustaining meds.

I wrote about a Memphis woman who died in September 2005 from congestive heart failure because she could not afford to buy her medicine. And this great lady, the day before she died, had just cooked meals for Hurriance Katrina victims who had landed in Memphis. And Bredesen promised each of those evacuees that they would be covered by TennCare.

Outrageous. Shameful. Immoral. The dictionary does not contain enough words for this kind of indency by the governor.

Fast forward to the latest indecency over home health care. The only good thing to come out of this mess is that enough Tennesseans of conscience have been moved to act, including those in the General Assembly. The Tennessee Health Care Campaign, an advocacy group, has organized a most beneficial gathering for these victims of political cowardice and their family members to get their voices heard by lawmakers and officials who will rule on appeals.

Here is what you can do to make a difference:

Circle Tuesday, Sept. 30 on your calendar. Gas up the car and set your bearings for Legislative Plaza in Nashville. It's just east of the state Capitol building. You'll have to find a parking garage for your vehicle.

At 10:30 a.m. in the cafeteria, you'll get hands-on training on how to file an appeal to a TennCare decision to remove your home health care. Lunch will follow, with a press conference at 12:30. Afterward, a meeting of the TennCare Legislative Oversight Committee will begin at 1:30.

Your attendance in great numbers at that meeting will send an important message to the lawmakers present. THCC encourages you to contact your state lawmakers and ask them to attend the training, press conference and meeting to hear the stories of their constituents who are suffering so greatly for what I call political cowardice and very poor planning by the governor's office and TennCare.

Of if you cannot make the meeting, ask your state senator and representative to come to your home to see the consequences of misdirected public policy. If they won't come, contact me at the e-mail address at the bottom of my profile and I'll run their name for everyone to see.

To find out who represents you, go to http://www.legislature.state.tn.us.

Here is another important thing you can do to make a difference. Contact members of the TennCare Legislative Oversight Commission now. Let's build some momentum. I know several of the members -- Sen. Black, Sen. Jackson, Rep. Hensley and Rep. Odom. Black is a former nurse. Hensley still is a practicing doctor. Jackson is just a good and decent man. And I know they will listen. Odom in particular has been standing out as a voice of reason and compassion on TennCare.

This met method works. I know from personal experience in successfully helping lawmakers to push charter school legislation earlier this decade. Use the following list:

* Sen. Diane Black, Robertson and part of Sumner counties, 819 Plantation Boulevard, Gallatin, TN 37066. Phone:(615) 230-8586Or email at sen.black@legislature.state.tn.us

* Senator Charlotte Burks, Cumberland, Jackson, Overton, Pickett, 
Putnam and White counties; 18131 Crossville Highway, Monterey, TN 38574. Phone (931) 839-3392, sen.charlotte.burks@legislature.state.tn.us

* Senator Rusty Crowe, Washington and Carter counties, 808 East 8th Avenue, Johnson City, TN 37601. Phone (423) 926-8288, sen.rusty.crowe@legislature.state.tn.us

* Senator Raymond Finney, Blount and Sevier counties, 2119 Middlewood Drive, Maryville, TN 37803. Phone: 865-984-1424, sen.raymond.finney@legislature.state.tn.us

* Senator Roy Herron, Benton, Decatur, Henry, Henderson, 
Lake, Obion, Perry, Stewart and Weakley counties; Court Square, P.O. Box 5, Dresden, TN 38225. Phone (731) 364-5415, sen.roy.herron@legislature.state.tn.us

* Senator Doug Jackson, Dickson, Giles, Hickman, 
Humphreys, Lawrence, and Lewis counties; 119 Tanglewood Drive, Dickson, TN 37055; (615) 446-5631, sen.doug.jackson@legislature.state.tn.us

* Senator Steve Southerland, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, and Unicoi counties; 322 West Hillcrest Drive, Morristown, TN 37813;(615) 741-3851, sen.steve.southerland@legislature.state.tn.us

* Representative Joe Armstrong, Part of Knox County, 4708 Hilldale Drive, Knoxville, TN 37914; (865) 532-6374, rep.joe.armstrong@legislature.state.tn.us

* Representative Dennis Ferguson, Roane and part of Loudon Counties; 2851 Roane State Highway, Harriman, TN 37748; (865) 882-5930, rep.dennis.ferguson@legislature.state.tn.us

* Representative Bill Harmon, Sequatchie, Van Buren, 
Grundy, and Marion counties; 107 Harmon Road North, Dunlap, TN 37327; (423) 949-5100; rep.bill.harmon@legislature.state.tn.us

* Representative Mike Harrison, Hancock and part of Hawkins counties; 115 Green Acres Drive, Rogersville, TN 37857; (615) 741-7480, rep.mike.harrison@legislature.state.tn.us

* Representative Joey Hensley, Lawrence, Lewis and 
part of Wayne counties; 855 Summertown Highway, Hohenwald, TN 38462
Phone (615) 741-7476, rep.joey.hensley@legislature.state.tn.us

* Representative Steve McDaniel, Henderson, Chester and parts of 
Decatur and Wayne counties; 97 Battleground Drive, Parkers Crossroads, TN 38388
Phone (731) 968-7883, rep.steve.mcdaniel@legislature.state.tn.us

* Representative Gary Odom, Part of Davidson county;
119 Dunham Springs Lane, Nashville, TN 37205;
Phone (615) 356-5096, rep.gary.odom@legislature.state.tn.us

* Rep. David Shepard, Dickson and part of Hickman Counties
204 McCreary Heights, Dickson, TN 37055;
Phone (615) 446-9782, rep.david.shepard@legislature.state.tn.us

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Out of all those that have been cut from TennCare, how many had no business being in the program to begin with? I think this is a valid question and should be addressed. There are way to many people that are abusing the system that need to be taken off and fined. These are the people that are keeping those needing TennCare off. How many state politicians have been to a ER recently and actually spoken with the staff about the true problem? Let me answer that for you, NONE. They do not have a clue; yet they blindly lead us further into debt. Time to rethink those that are leading us and fire them in Nov.

DinTN said...

Ever seen a letter from the Bureau Of Tenncare? I have. Just your standard "nothing much has changed" letter dated August, 2008.
13 pages. 6 full pages printed in English. 6 full pages printed in Spanish.
Other: Kurdish- (Badinani); Kurdish- (Sorani); Arabic; Somali- (Soomaali); Bosnian- (Bosanski); Vietnamese- (Nguoi Viet).
Thirteen pages that could have been printed in six, times the number of thousands on Tenncare = ?$$$$.
No one can tell me that it isn't costing ALL taxpayers of Tennessee for the extra cost of printing all this in languages other than English. What about the citizens of Tennessee that DON'T get Tenncare? They are paying for it too. Could the cost of printing in all these languages have just a little to do with cuts in home health care and reducing other benefits for all Tenncare recepients? Adding to the cost of printing decreases benefits to everyone!
Our government continues to grow and with growth comes more documents printed and higher taxes to cover the costs.
I have relatives working in the home health care occupation, so, no I don't want to see this end, but when taxes go up to cover printing costs, EnglishFirst in government would be a good place to start saving a few bucks for Tenncare.