What is Medicaid?
Medicaid is a joint state-federal program to provide health care coverage to low-income folks, primarily children, pregnant women, parents, people with disabilities and some older adults.
In Tennessee, Medicaid is called TennCare. It covers about 1.5 million people—that’s more than 1 in 5 Tennesseans.
TennCare has a special setup: if the state spends less than a certain amount, it gets to keep some of the leftover federal money. This is called "shared savings", and it helps the state improve TennCare coverage and invest in community health.
Why does it matter?
Community health centers serve over 425,000 people in Tennessee—32% of them use TennCare.
TennCare coverage includes:
- Coverage for HALF of all births in Tennessee
- Comprehensive adult dental benefit
- One full year of post-partum coverage for mothers
- 100 diapers per month for the first two months of a baby’s life
Community health investments 🏘️
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Mental health, including community mental health centers and behavioral health hospitals, expanding substance abuse disorder treatment, intensive in-home supports, primary care training, early childhood training, and children’s hospital infrastructure.
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Rural health care, including apprenticeships and skilled training, greater access to specialty care and telemedicine, improved career pathways, and hospital and physician support.
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Loan program to support disaster recovery for wastewater and water infrastructure repair and debris management following Hurricane Helene.
What’s Next for Medicaid? Reconciliation Process Moves Forward
Reconciliation is the process by which Congress can pass budget-related items without needing 60 votes in the Senate. Congress hopes to use this process to pass many of President Trump’s priorities such as tax cuts and border security.
The Timeline 📅
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The House & Senate passed budget resolutions, which provide general instructions to committees on how much they need to cut or spend.
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The House Energy & Commerce Committee, with jurisdiction over Medicaid, was instructed to find $880B in savings over 10 years .
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The Energy & Commerce Committee marked up their portion of the reconciliation last week.
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The resulting package includes changes to Medicaid, including work requirements, limitations on provider taxes, and changes to the Medicaid expansion population. View a more comprehensive summary of Medicaid changes in the bill.
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The House Budget Committee considered the full reconciliation package (a mega-bill with bills from all committees with jurisdiction over the key priorities) on Friday but it failed to pass.
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However, the package made it out of the House Budget Committee Sunday night and is now at the House Rules Committee, and could be on the House floor for a vote as soon as the end of the week.
Even though we don’t yet know exactly how TennCare will be affected, it’s critical that Tennesseans make their voices heard. Lawmakers need to understand just how vital Medicaid is to our families, communities, and health centers—before decisions are made that could impact millions.
Action Steps to Protect Medicaid