Report: Insure Tennessee would bring $1B in revenue to state

A report from the Coalition for a Healthy Tennessee found that the plan of Gov. Bill Haslam (R) to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would help the state's veterans, low-income residents and those who are unemployed but actively looking for work to obtain health insurance. All told, more than 234,000 people who would qualify for Insure Tennessee currently do not have insurance; they typically require more care than the average Tennessean, the report said, as they are more likely to smoke, have asthma or suffer from heart disease. Getting these residents covered would save the state more than $1 billion, the report concluded, as the ACA's Medicaid expansion provisions would fully cover these insurance costs for two years. Report (.pdf)