“Medicaid, or TennCare as it’s known in our state, was established as a partnership between federal and state governments — a compact to provide healthcare to low-income pregnant women, children and the disabled. Sadly, this partnership is eroding as the federal government shifts more costs onto state and county taxpayers at a time when most states are grappling with impacts of the national economic recession. Specifically, the federal government is changing the rules about how it funds Medicaid programs. For Tennessee, this could take approximately 400 million federal dollars away from TennCare.” [editor’s note: Darin Gordon is the current director of TennCare, so his perspective here is suspect; however, the analysis of the effects of the cuts on the statist quo of the program is accurate - SAT] (05/12/08)