Haslam tempers enthusiasm on Medicaid expansion talks

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Bloomberg, Jeff Kowalsky

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam

Eric Snyder

Managing Editor- Nashville Business Journal

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Gov. Bill Haslam is less encouraged by conversations he's had with federal officials about expanding Medicaid in Tennessee than he was a few weeks ago.

"I would have hoped we would have made more progress by now, after the meeting we had up there five or six weeks ago," Haslam said Tuesday, The Tennessean reports. "It hasn't been as encouraging recently as I had hoped, after my sit-down with [U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews.]"

In late August, Haslam said the state would "probably" present federal officials with a plan for expanding Medicaid "sometime this fall."

In 2013, Haslam declined to expand TennCare, the state's Medicaid program, as set out in the Affordable Care Act. He then pursued an alternative "Tennessee Plan," in which the state would use federal money to subsidize private insurance plans to expand coverage.