State Budget Proposal Will Not Include Federal Health Care Dollars

Governor Bill Haslam says he’ll propose a budget for next year without deciding whether to accept hundreds of millions of federal healthcare dollars. The move would not require matching state funds for a few years, so Haslam says he’ll decide later. As part of last year’s Supreme Court ruling on the federal healthcare overhaul, Tennessee can choose whether to expand its Medicaid program TennCare. The governor says it is not critical to the budget he’ll propose later this month. Expanding TennCare could add coverage for around 200 thousand poor people, but would put the state on the hook to help pay tens of millions for it after a few years.