Tennessee Plan For Poor and Disabled May Be Too Expensive

Tennessee has developed a new insurance option for uninsured individuals with illnesses or disabilities - but there is a catch. According to the Nashville Tennessean, premiums for the new program, called AccessTN, range from $273 to $1,156 per month, depending on the individual's age, weight, and other factors. This may be too expensive for many of the state's 700,000 uninsured individuals. The state does offer subsidies for the lowest-income individuals, but other must continue to go without due to the premium rate.

AccessTN is also limited in the number of enrollees it can accept. It will accept 6,000 applicants in the first year - most of which will be people who were dropped from the now defunct TennCare. Nevertheless, it offers hope of insurance coverage for individuals too sick to qualify for traditional insurance policies - if they can afford the price tag.