DAY SEVENTY: Rally in Nashville

Call for a Special Legislative Session on TennCare

(NASHVILLE, August 28, 2005) Over 300 people rallied for TennCare yesterday at War Memorial Plaza calling for a statewide campaign to reverse the Bredesen Administration cuts to the healthcare program. The crowd cheered loudly for a special legislative session to repeal the TennCare changes.

The Rally was held on the sixty-ninth day of the occupation of Governor Bredesen’s office. Activists in the governor’s office say they could see the rally from the state office building, but could not hear.

“There must have been a hundred people who came by and tapped on the glass to show their support,” said Michael Heinrich who is one of the demonstrators locked inside the Capitol for the weekend.

The activists in the governor’s office are demanding the Administration abolish the TennCare cuts and meet openly with protestors about TennCare reform options. To date, Bredesen has refused to respond to why he has rejected cost-saving options, and turned to disenrolling nearly 200,000 citizens. The governor will only meet behind closed-doors, with no press and with a small number of advocates.

A special session in Tennessee may be called either by two-thirds of state legislators or the governor. Bredesen is opposed to a special session and has painted the attempts to hold a TennCare session as an attempt to raise taxes.

"We want to reform and restore TennCare in a way that's safe and fiscally responsible," said Tony Garr, executive director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign. "We are not trying to bring TennCare back the way it was because TennCare was not fiscally responsible. There are people who have been cut off who cannot wait to have the problem fixed later on. People's lives are on the line."

-Tim Wheat