Thank You God!!!!

10 years ago... Naysayers told the State of Tennessee that if it went ahead with it's plan for a State sponsored healthcare plan the sky would effectively fall. They said:

Doctors would leave the state.
Hospitals would close.
MedMal would skyrocket.
Dogs and Cats would Live in Harmony.
The State would go bankrupt.

While dogs are still chasing cats, I'd like to point out that the rest of the things we conservatives listed all came quite true. The second largest hospital in Memphis closed within 3 years of TnCare's startup. Within 5 years 6 more had closed throughout the state. By 1997 medical schools all over the state were advising their students not to go into pediactrics, or family medicine, because they knew if they stayed in TN they wouldn't make enough money to pay back their medical school loans.

Doctors fled the state like rats from a sinkin' ship. Quality of care dropped through the floor, and medical malpractice suits rapidly started climbing. As TnCare payed out less and less, finally hospitals started refusing to take TnCare patients...

And all the while, one of the most finacially stable states in the federal empire practically fell to ruin.

Today, even a Democrat sees the cold hard truth. Governor Bredeson has announced that in 7 days, TnCare will begin shutting down, and in 6 months, it will be totally gone.

In the coming days we'll hear about 500,000 people who are currently on TnCare but who won't qualify for medicare. What you won't hear, and what you must remember is, the reason they don't qualify for medicare is pretty simple. They have jobs that offer benefits.

We've been paying for these freeloaders for to damned long. They can pay for their own insurance just like the rest of us. Pardon my language ladies.

So 7 days from now we pop the cork. It looks like we may be able to live in Tennessee after all!