|
SCLC joins the struggle to secure TennCare
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Memphis Chapter and the National Office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, in conjunction with the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association, Memphis Center for Independent Living, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, ADAPT of Tennessee and those that are personally facing TennCare cuts are coming together for a press conference:
When: Thursday, June 16, 11:00AM
Where: Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue
Memphis, TN 38112
Purpose: Dr. Charles Steele, SCLC’s National President, will be announcing that the National Office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference will be joining the ongoing efforts in Tennessee to reinstate the TennCare cuts.
As a Coalition we are demanding for Governor Bredesen to respond to the Declaration to Save Lives. The Declaration was initially delivered to the Governor’s office April 8th, 2005. Despite the Governor’s claims of keeping lines of communications open concerning TennCare, he has yet to respond to any of the nine recommendations in the Declaration. The recommendations within the Declaration would have saved the state of Tennessee $649 million dollars and would have allowed thousands of Tennesseans to keep their TennCare coverage.
For more information on this press conference please contact Dr. Dwight Montgomery at 901/795-8149 President of the Memphis Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or Randy Alexander at 901/726-6404 with the Memphis Center for Independent Living.
|
|
Declaration to Save Lives
When, in the course of human events, our state leaders allow the health and welfare of thousands of our citizens to be put at risk while maintaining lavish health care benefits for themselves;
When, in the course of running our government, our state leaders place balancing the budget over the lives of our most vulnerable citizens;
When, in the course of deciding policy, our state leaders choose to ignore options that would save millions of dollars and allow the state to care for our most vulnerable citizens;
When, in the pursuit of power, our state leaders decide to minimize the rights of our citizens rather than protecting the lives of the people whom they are supposed to serve; and,
When, in the pursuit of re-election, our state leaders are willing to jeopardize the lives of 719,000 of our brothers and sisters, then, We the People of this State DECLARE that this government must reconsider its decisions, reexamine its motives, reassess the issues involved, and FIND ANOTHER WAY.
United in our declaration, we declare, "NO," to terminating health care coverage for 323,000 of our citizens. United in our declaration, we declare, "NO," to minimizing the benefits of 396,000 of our citizens.
We declare that our state government must begin now to implement cost saving programs to protect the most vulnerable of our most vulnerable citizens by:
- Controlling drug overuse and abuse by good management using computers and electronic data to identify the overuse and bad prescribing patterns of doctors; WE DECLARE IT!
- Requiring the use of the least costly drugs that will effectively treat patients, not the cheapest and not only what is adequate; WE DECLARE IT!
- Holding the managed care organizations accountable, placing them at financial risk, and stop the overpayments; WE DECLARE IT!
- Managing the diseases of the 51,000 TennCare enrollees (4%) who use 47% of TennCare resources so that their health care is effective and less costly; WE DECLARE IT!
- Re-bidding the preferred drug list (PDL) to include behavioral health drugs, requiring supplemental rebates. WE DECLARE IT!
- Introduce higher "sin" taxes to discourage the use of alcohol and tobacco. WE DECLARE IT!
- Calling on employers to be good corporate citizens and provide affordable health care to its employees. If they do not, then they should be asked to contribute toward the TennCare budget the cost of their employees’ health coverage through TennCare; WE DECLARE IT!
- Increase premiums and co-pays for those who can afford it, not for those who are poor; WE DECLARE IT!
- Adopt insurance reform and not allow insurance companies to deny care to those who are "uninsurable". In the event that an insurance company does this, tax them to help defray the cost of their coverage; WE DECLARE IT!
- Call on President Bush, Senators Frist and Alexander and members of the Tennessee congressional delegation to obtain federal aid that can help TennCare through this crisis that harms the most vulnerable Tennesseans. WE DECLARE IT!
We, the undersigned, declare that the lives of these 719,000 are worthy of our attention and that their lives are God-given, valued and are gifts to our State. We declare that our government SHALL not turn its back, that it SHALL not ignore our plea, and that it SHALL not be allowed to say that the State does not have the money.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference – Memphis Chapter
Rainbow Push Coalition
Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association
Mohammad Mosque #55
Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship of Nashville
NAACP of Nashville
TennCare Saves Lives Coalition
Nashville Peace and Justice Center
Missionary Baptist State Convention of Tennessee
Tennessee Health Care Campaign
|
