Obama visit, court ruling set stage for renewed Insure Tennessee push

Nothing about the most controversial health insurance proposal facing Tennessee has changed in the months since lawmakers declined to support it earlier this year.

But Insure Tennessee advocates are optimistic a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and upcoming presidential visit could continue to change the environment that's shaped debate on Gov. Bill Haslam's plan.

More than 100 people joined politicians and health care officials Monday morning at Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital in Nashville to again call for passage of Insure Tennessee, the plan to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income Tennesseans with federally funded health coverage. State lawmakers, chiefly Democrats, have made similar calls in recent weeks, but they were joined Monday by U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean.

"Almost everybody in Tennessee is for this, except our legislature. Why can't our elected officials get their act together and start supporting what the people want?" Cooper said after the short event.

Cooper and other officials made reference to polls from Vanderbilt University, Haslam and others that have shown support for the plan. Those polls, in large part, were available when state lawmakers rejected the proposal during a special legislative session in February and during the regular legislative session in April.

Opponents, including Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, and other leading Republicans at the statehouse, have argued there are still too many unknowns with the plan. Many say they don't trust the federal government to keep its word and allow the state to end the program at any moment, or argue the more than $1 billion in federal money provided for the program would only exacerbate the country's national debt.

Those lawmakers can't point to the King v. Burwell case any longer, however. The court's decision to affirm federal subsidies for people purchasing health insurance through the federal health exchange addresses the questions of some GOP lawmakers, who warned it would be premature to act on Insure Tennessee before the court issued a decision that could cripple the Affordable Care Act.

Haslam, who was in Memphis for a different event Monday, has argued the Supreme Court case wouldn't affect most of the Tennesseans who would be covered by Insure Tennessee. After the court's decision he said he wasn't sure what effect the ruling would have on the Insure Tennessee debate.

Dean, who's spoken in favor of the plan before, believes the ruling and President Barack Obama's visit to the Nashville area this week offer a platform to continue to promote the need for Insure Tennessee.

"You can't give up. You have to keep talking about it, you have to keep it out there for people to learn about it and push the legislature to take some action," Dean said Monday morning.

"Certainly given the Supreme Court decision last week, this will only continue to focus the need on the Insure Tennessee program, the need for something to be done in this state. The president, by coming here, is certainly going to put a very bright spotlight on this issue, and that's a good thing."

Obama will speak Wednesday at Taylor Stratton Elementary School in Madison. There's no guarantee the president will even mention Insure Tennessee, but House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, argued there are still clear signs support for the plan continues to grow.

"The momentum for Insure Tennessee didn't stop when the special session was over and when the regular session of this General Assembly was over; it has really just gotten stronger. So I think there is a groundswell," Fitzhugh said after Monday's event.

Fitzhugh continues to fight for Haslam to call a special legislative session for lawmakers to again consider Insure Tennessee. Haslam hasn't publicly noted any change from GOP lawmakers, something he's said will need to happen before he can consider calling a special session. As of now, the earliest lawmakers would formally debate Insure Tennessee is the start of the regular legislative session in January.

Obama's Nashville visit

What: On Wednesday, President Barack Obama is visiting the Nashville area.

Where: Taylor Stratton Elementary School in Madison

Why: Obama is giving a speech on federal health law the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare."

Is the event open? The event is closed to the public, but 70 people already chosen by the White House will be allowed to attend.

Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1