Rep. Jim Cooper (TN-05) will testify at the Middle Tennessee Public Comment Hearing on Tennessee's Medicaid Block Grant Proposal. The hearing will take place Tuesday, October 1 at 2:00 pm at Family and Children's Service in Nashville. Two more will follow on Wednesday and Thursday. The Wednesday East Tennessee and Thursday West Tennessee hearings will take place on October 2 and October 3, respectively.

Rep. Cooper's office reports he has been vocal about the inefficiency of a block grant for Tennesseans. Most recently he stated, "This is a completely unnecessary waiver request. We could have already expanded Medicaid as the healthier states have already done, including majority-Republican states. But Tennessee has refused since 2010 to expand Medicaid for ideological reasons, thereby rejecting almost a billion dollars a year in health assistance. Think of how we could have improved--and lengthened--the lives of Tennesseans with the $9 billion we have already turned down."

Tennessee residents can submit comments in person, via postal mail, and by emailing public.notice.tenncare@tn.gov. The state will take public feedback into account as they work to submit a final version of the plan to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services by the November deadline. If TennCare obtains federal approval for implementing the Block Grant, Tennessee would be the first state in the country to do so.