Topic: Change that works Tennessee

Tennessee’s small businesses support health care reform

By Mark Naccarato | July 9, 2009 |

With Congress debating how to reform America’s health care system, a new survey report reveals that Tennessee’s small business owners, including the self-employed, are struggling to afford healthcare coverage and have strong opinions on how health reform should be shaped. The report – “American Health Care Reform: Serious Business for Tennessee’s Small Businesses” – illustrates small business owners’ concerns and preferences for reform.

“This study provides new insight into the opinions of small business owners across Tennessee and shows their preferences for health care reform issues,” says Craig Anne Heflinger, professor of human and organizational development in Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development and a coauthor of the report.

Key findings from the report include:

• 79% report they are “really struggling” to afford the cost of health coverage.
• 61% believe that reforming health care now is a step to getting the economy back on track
• 73% report everyone should have a choice between quality, affordable public and private plans
• 88% report that it will be a significant challenge in the future to offer health insurance coverage to employees
• 70% want more public oversight of private insurers
• 61% agree that the government should play a stronger role in guaranteeing access to quality, affordable health care.

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Gone Country: Healthcare crisis out of control in rural Tennessee

By Mark Naccarato | June 9, 2009 |

While most of the healthcare activism in Tennessee seems to be happening in Nashville, Memphis, and the state’s other big and medium-sized cities, it’s important for us not to ignore the rural areas across the state. After all, it’s in Tennessee’s rural areas where the healthcare crisis is the worst.

According to a new report released by the Service Employees International Union called The Value of Reform in Tennessee, the reality of the healthcare crisis is grim in Tennessee’s rural towns. In the current recession, the rural economy is losing jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the nation, and loss of jobs can lead to loss of health coverage. These hard-working folks – unemployed through no fault of their own – are forced to either go without insurance or pay out of pocket to get it. And people who have to buy insurance on their own tend to pay more for premiums, have higher deductibles, and have fewer procedures covered. One out of five rural residents spends more than $1,000 per year out of their own pocket on health services. Overall, rural residents pay 40% out of pocket for medical needs—a significantly bigger hit than other Americans absorb. «Read the rest of this article»

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