Collins Report

By Kevin “Coach” Collins

What will KennedyCare cost? Plenty!

In 1994 to buy perpetual control of Tennessee, Democrats offered virtually “free” government health care. Tennessee’s version of KennedyCare is called TennCare. Its costs grew exponentially from an initial budget of $300 million to $8.5 Billion by 2005 when it imploded. It grew so large it eventually gobbled up fully 33% of Tennessee’s budget! In less than ten years it was an acknowledged failure, a very expensive failure.

Major “unforeseeable” problems:

In just eighteen months it became obvious TennCare was bankrupting the state under the weight of shocking fraud mismanagement and Tennessee style systemic corruption. Originally designed to provide medical insure to 850, 000 of Tennessee’s poorest residents, another 500,000 Tennesseans signed up anyway. Worse still another 300,000 illegal aliens fraudulently registered as well. Tennessee Democrats “tried” to keep illegal aliens off TennCare, but “nothing worked.” Reports of dead people on the rolls infuriated people and helped bring about demands for redesign.

When the waves of “unforeseen” registrants crashed down on the system and combined with endemic fraud and corruption the program was slammed into crisis. By 2005 TennCare had to be scaled back. Not surprisingly Democrats tried to save it with a first time ever state personal income tax, but people stormed the capital district and shutdown the state until it was taken off the table.

TennCare: what KennedyCare will be

A Republican Congressman who worked as a physician under TennCare reports witnessing other doctors refuse to see TennCare patients because of the lower reimbursement rates and difficulty collecting on their invoices.

In spite of every socialist “good intention” TennCare never was able to cover all Tennesseans leaving 6% uninsured. Tennessee’s socialist adventure serves as a clear red line reminder of what will happen if Kennedycare is made the law of the land.

You could see it coming

From the beginning the registration process for TennCare clearly invited fraud and abuse. Applicants only had to produce one letter from one medical insurance company denying acceptance and TennCare was obligated to enroll him or her. At the lower end of the economic scale the cost per person per month was just $2.74, hardly enough to encourage the type of “ownership” mentality needed to make the program work.
Massachusetts has its own form of Kennedycare and is laboring under cost over runs and similar problems. This government paid for and administered health care always “sounds” like a good idea when it is still just that “an idea.” But when universal “free” government health care actually sees the light of day it melts away and faster than snow in July.

Comments on this or any other Collins Report essay can be sent to kcoachc “at” gmail.com