Halt! TennCare doesn't care who goes there!
The most interesting thing in this Tennessean story about TennCare having halted checking enrollee's eligibility (again) is the paragraph that drives home, once again, that the Sundquist administration and TennCare do not really want to limit the program only to people who are eligible for it.

Comments the Tennessean: "TennCare checking, or reverification, is supposed to take place once a year. Enrollees are required to meet face-to-face with eligibility counselors who are to check everything from income to access to private insurance. In December, TennCare, under court order, began a new round of rechecking eligibility."

Fact: For most of its existence, the TennCare Bureau has not bothered to check on the eligibility of enrollees, despite federal regulations that require it.

Fact: The most recent audit of TennCare found that more than 130,000 people are receiving TennCare benefits despite having given TennCare only a P.O. box rather than a street address, even though TennCare rules require the agency to reject applicants who don't have a Tennessee street address. Most of the enrollees with only P.O. boxes are thought to be non-residents who have attached themselves leech-like to the generous benefits of TennCare. Cost to taxpayers in just fiscal year 2001: $465 million.