THE CRISIS: A pivotal battle over the future of Medicaid is underway in Tennessee right now. The situation there is one of the most extreme in the country and it deserves the attention of health care advocates everywhere!

There is no alternative to the Medicaid safety net in our dysfunctional health care system for people with low income and no private insurance. Not only is the dismantling of Medicaid programs like TennCare moving our nation further away from the goal of health care for all, but throwing people off the program will have devastating consequences for thousands of people who will face the prospect of preventable illness and early death as a result of losing health insurance.

The letter goes on to explain that Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has proposed to remove 323,000 people from the TennCare program.

Wow.

In my state (Maryland), our governor last week removed 4,000 kids from Medicaid (thus padding our $255 million budget surplus by another $5.5 million).  I thought that choice was a little, uh, numbing. It is hard to imagine how our colleagues in Tennessee are feeling about the prospect of removing 323,000 people from their Medicaid program.

To learn more about these cuts in Tennessee, use a search engine or go to TennCare.org . Tennessee and national health advocacy groups are encouraging all of us to voice our concerns about the health care crisis in Tennessee by contacting their governor.  It doesn't matter if you live in Tennessee or not.  We all need to speak up and say that this choices is not the right solution.  Or bet that something similar is coming to your state soon.

Thanks for reading.  Recommend this post, add it to your own blog, see how we can add our voices to this debate.