Even with Gov. Bill Haslam’s new proposal, most members of the Tennessee
NFIB remain strongly opposed to Medicaid expansion in Tennessee.

Nearly two-thirds of Tennessee members of the National Federation of
Independent Business oppose Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal.

Based on a statewide survey of around 8,000 members, released Friday
afternoon, 65 percent of Tennessee small-business owners are against
Haslam’s plan to expand Medicaid coverage, which will offer two new
coverage options and insure an estimated 200,000 additional Tennesseans.

“Many small-business owners have reservations about the proposal, as
currently structured,” Jim Brown, the Tennessee state director of the NFIB,
said in a news release. “They’re concerned with more federal borrowing, how
the plan will operate, likely loopholes and a lack of benchmarks.

Members appreciate core principles in the governor’s plan, but most aren’t
convinced yet it would operate effectively enough and believe taxpayers
would be pressured to foot any cost overruns.”

Twenty-two percent of members favor Haslam’s Insure Tennessee plan, while
13 percent said they were still undecided. A past survey of NFIB members
indicated the group of small-business owners were overwhelmingly against
expanding Medicaid in Tennessee. It appears Haslam’s proposal, an attempt
to expand the program outside the original parameters of the Affordable
Care Act, hasn’t swayed those objections.

Eighty-seven percent of Tennessee NFIB members say they are concerned with
“not establishing mesasurable outcomes and tying them to any continuance of
the plan.”

Meanwile, 71 percent believe the existing Medicaid plan should be reformed
before Tennessee considers expanding the program.