(NASHVILLE) The Safety-Net Task Force that was appointed by Governor Bredesen did not get data from the state of the health-care demographics of the citizens that were to be removed from TennCare. Task force members stated that the data was important in the mission of the safety-net task force to predict the health-care needs of Tennessee.

TennCare Director J.D. Hickey implied in a letter that federal confidentiality laws prevented sharing the data with the media or full task force. However, the Nashville daily newspaper The Tennessean obtained aggregate health-care data with no confidential information, and the task force did not seek personal information.

"…J.D. Hickey is saying they couldn't share the (patient) information,” said Sen. Jim Bryson, R-Franklin, “but there was nothing personal in the data (the newspaper) obtained. Why couldn't they share that with the task force?"

When the commission asked for the data, the Bredesen Administration said it did not exist and when the Administration is found concealing the information, officials state that it couldn’t be shared. Rather than information transparency, the Bredesen Administration puts its efforts into information manipulation. 

Money savings to the state was greeted with a positive statement by the governor suggesting that his program has been a success. 

"We're getting the results that we need,” said Gov. Phil Bredesen on November 17, “and it's not had the harmful effects that people feared." 

But this statement is made without any real analysis. Obviously some of the most drastic health effects will take months to develop and the governor is not likely to share that information. The governor’s statement is also of little comfort to those who have died already due to Bredesen’s policy.

But most irresponsible is the economic impact of the governor’s plan. The loss of federal match will take millions of dollars out of the state economy and cost thousands of Tennesseans their jobs. Bredesen’s perspective is the narrow savings of state funds, but he does not fail to give these savings a positive spin and attempt to imply that these savings are similar to success.

“It is the Bredesen way of government,” explained a TennCare activist, “to turn the lights out and take credit for the bright future.” 

- Tim Wheat