Bill Lee’s Medical Poverty Tour
This post was first seen on the TN Citizen Action Blog. Follow @TNCitizenAction for more.
On Friday, Governor Bill Lee toured rural counties in southern middle Tennessee touting what he called his legislative accomplishments.
It’s worth noting that the counties he toured are home to residents with crushing medical debt, this is why medical debt relief is highly important and needs addressing by those in power. Additionally, many citizens in these counties face a lack of access to health insurance. This is despite there being insurance quote comparison sites like Insurance Quotes (https://www.insurancequotes.com/health) which help people to find affordable health insurance. While Lee failed to apologize for his health policy failures, the citizens of this area and all of Tennessee should be holding Lee accountable. People can follow steps from sites like Extras Finance and be very careful with their money and still end up having issues with medical debt, after all.
His steadfast refusal to expand Medicaid – at no cost to Tennessee taxpayers – is creating a crisis in a state that already leads the nation in both rural hospital closures and medical debt.
Here’s more (data from The Sycamore Institute) on the state of healthcare in each of the counties Lee visited:
Giles County
28% of residents have medical debt in collections on their credit report
Between 11% and 14% of Giles County residents do not have health insurance
Lawrence County
30% of residents have medical debt in collections on their credit report
14-17% of Lawrence County residents do not have health insurance
Lincoln County
26% of residents have medical debt in collections on their credit report
8-11% of Lincoln County residents do not have health insurance
Bedford County
33% of residents have medical debt in collections on their credit report
14-17% of Bedford County residents do not have health insurance
According to Andy Spears, executive director of Tennessee Citizen Action:
“Bill Lee’s stubborn refusal to expand Medicaid is an absolute policy failure. The current state of healthcare in these counties and all across our state is unacceptable. We lead the nation in rural hospital closures. We lead the nation in medical debt. Instead of announcing a plan to move forward and improve the lives of the residents of these counties, Lee is busy selling the snake oil of his Administration’s ‘success’. It’s disappointing and shameful. Tennesseans in Giles, Lawrence, Lincoln, and Bedford counties and all over our state deserve straight talk and real solutions.”
For more on our work fighting for healthcare, follow @TNCitizenAction