Bredesen: Health care reform could cost state up to $1.2 billion

Gov. Phil Bredesen warned Tuesday health care reform legislation now before Congress could cost the state of Tennessee up to $1.2 billion in only the first five years of expanded coverage for poor people.

“These are not precise calculations,” the governor said, adding the cost could range as low as $530 million over the five years. “But they are not shaded. I didn’t do them optimistic or pessimistic to try to prove any points or anything like that. You just try to make the best estimates you can and be reasonable about them.”

He said he gave his cost estimates to Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker and Congressman Bart Gordon. “Frankly, they’ll probably get up and do something to the bill today, and we’ll change our estimate,” the governor told reporters in a conference call from New York, where he was holding annual meetings with bond rating agencies.

Bredesen, co-chair for health care policy for the National Governor’s Association, has been loud in his objections to a provision in House and Senate bills to expand Medicaid to all people with an annual income below $14,404. Previously, the governor has called it “the mother of all unfunded mandates,” saying states can’t absorb the cost of a huge influx of new beneficiaries.

Bredesen told The Washington Post Monday the cost could force Tennessee to cut funding for schools.

"I can't think of a worse time for this bill to be coming," he said. "I'd love to see it happen. But nobody's going to put their state into bankruptcy or their education system in the tank for it."