Tennessee

Health Policy rankings

Health indicators	Rank
Population	5,837,480
Number of insurance mandates	40
Death rate per 100,000	954.1
Percent of adults overweight or obese	59.30%
Percent of adults who have visited a dentist in the last 12 months	71.50%
Number of births (2004)	79,642

Ranking public policy	Rank
Overall health ownership rank	35
Government health care rank	7
Private health insurance rank	41
Provider burden of regulation rank	43
Medical tort rank	32

Sources

Policy ranks are from the U.S. Index of Health Ownership, published by the* Pacific Research Institute.
Health indicators are from State Health Facts, a service of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Number of insurance mandates comes from Health Insurance Mandates in the States 2007 (PDF), a publication of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance.

State Policy Network member

Tennessee Center for Policy Research

Government offices

Tennessee Plan: A Symbolic Effort

State officials are keen on ways of expanding the number of people who have health insurance--but sometimes you've got to wonder if they're actually looking at what they are proposing.

The key to insurance is that it should pay for unpredictable, expensive care. Yet one program has it all wrong, says Drew Johnson of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research: "Imagine if your car insurance paid for oil changes and new wiper blades, but left you on your own if your car were stolen or totaled in an accident. Unfortunately for enrollees, that’s how CoverTN operates."

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