Advocating for Health Care for All Since 1989
Tennessee Health Care Campaign (THCC) was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in 1989 with a vision for all Tennesseans to have affordable, high quality, and equitable health care. Over the course of our 30-year history, we have led advocacy efforts to expand Medicaid to pregnant mothers and children, served as an ombudsman program to help TennCare applicants, and mobilized volunteers to support direct outreach and enrollment of uninsured Tennesseans.
In recent years, our efforts with statewide volunteer networks, advocacy, and as part of the Get Covered Tenn Coalition, we have helped contribute to the reduction of Tennessee’s uninsured rate from nearly 14% in 2013 to a historic low of 9% currently
Our Board of Directors consists of consumers, advocates, and social service professionals from throughout the state. THCC works in collaboration with advocacy groups, affected constituents, community leaders, and policy makers—from grassroots to grasstops—to influence positive change in public health and health care.
Volunteers in communities throughout the state unite for change where they live through THCC’s Local Organizing Groups (LOGs). This grassroots network regularly engages hundreds of volunteers through LOGs in Chattanooga, Cookeville, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville.
Current and ongoing work:
- Building and supporting Local Organizing Groups (LOGs)
- Building and expanding statewide and national coalitions
- Public educational and training events
- Improve community safety-nets
- Advocating for consumers’ and patients’ rights an expansion of Medicai
- Enrollment of eligible Tennesseans in the Afforable Care Act Marketplace
Key Victories:
- Leading in the exciting new effort for National Health Care Reform (2010)
- Commitment to children’s health care by advocating for the reauthorization of the State’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) and improving CoverKids (Tennessee’s S-CHIP)
- Expanding continuous and quality health care through Medicaid/TennCare
Expanding and improving Cover Tennessee programs - Expanded coverage to low-income pregnant women (1990)
- Led consumer groups for innovative Medicaid program called TennCare (1994)
- Led advocate efforts to expand coverage to uninsured children (1997)
- Led Tennessee’s efforts with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Covering Kids Initiative (1998 – 2001)
- Continued leading Tennessee’s efforts with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Covering Kids & Families Initiative (2002 – 2006)
- Led efforts to protect children, despite the TennCare cuts to adults (2005)
- Created a grassroots to grasstops strategy that resulted in reducing the number of adults cut for TennCare health coverage, from 323,000 to 170,000 (2005)
- Initiated premium assistance program for Tennessee’s new high-risk pool, Access TN (2006)
- CoverKids (S-CHIP) dental & vision benefit expansion (2007)
- Won patients’ rights through improved hospital charity care policy (2007)