A resolution requesting Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator Lamar Alexander to take the action necessary to ensure that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services match Tennessee's Safety Net dollars and that disproportionate share hospital payments for Tennessee be restored in the Medicare budget.

WHEREAS, as a result of rapidly growing increases in the costs of the TennCare program, the State of Tennessee made widespread cuts in 2005 to TennCare causing 190,000 Tennesseans to lose their health insurance benefits; and

WHEREAS, the Tennessee General Assembly appropriated funds in June 2005 for the implementation of transitional Safety Net programs to provide assistance to TennCare disenrollees; and

WHEREAS, approximately 50,000 to 60,000 Davidson County residents have no health insurance coverage; and

WHEREAS, Nashville General Hospital at Meharry is a publicly supported hospital that provides care for a large percentage of the indigent patients in Nashville; and

WHEREAS, the changes in the TennCare program have increased the volume of indigent patients at General Hospital; and

WHEREAS, the taxpayers of Nashville and Davidson County currently provide a $28.7 million annual supplement to General Hospital to help it achieve its goal of providing 100 percent access to healthcare and zero disparity between populations; and

WHEREAS, safety net and disproportionate share funding is crucial to the health and wellbeing or our community.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY:

Section 1. That the Metropolitan County Council hereby goes on record as requesting Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senator Lamar Alexander to take the action necessary to ensure that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services match Tennessee's Safety Net dollars and that disproportionate share hospital payments for Tennessee be restored in the Medicare budget.

Section 2. The Metropolitan Clerk is directed to send a copy of this Resolution to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and to Senator Lamar Alexander.

Section 3. That this Resolution shall take effect from and after its adoption, the welfare of The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County requiring it.

Sponsored by: Brenda Gilmore, Erik Cole, David Briley, Carolyn Baldwin Tucker