Tonight TennCare will open its phone lines for around an hour to take the first 2,500 callers. If you are one of the lucky callers, and you have massive medical bills and are a person with disabilities or a parent of a minor, you will get the honor of applying for a narrow category of TennCare that only opens twice year to a tiny fraction of Tennessee’s 900,000 uninsured residents. It’s kind of a mix of the Oklahoma Land Rush and a radio station contest for concert tickets. The difference is the stakes are higher. The people calling desperately need health care. For some of them it’s a matter of life or death. And so they call and call hoping to hear something other than a busy signal- hoping they will be a lucky winner.
The opening of those phone lines does not come on any regular basis, but when it does we at TJC call our clients, make flyers and spread the word around the state. Because of the limited eligibility TennCare offers for adults, it is hope to the hopeless. After several years of this drill we have found many of our most vulnerable clients only get their hopes dashed. It’s a nerve-racking evening of dialing as fast as they can only to be met with an unyielding and hostile, pounding busy signal. It is especially hard on people with disabilities. Only a few hundred of those who get through will actually get coverage, so it is important that those who do get through, and who take one of the treasured phone slots, has been vetted and is eligible.
Last year, when the phone lines opened my co-workers said, “Let’s stay late and call for our clients, who we know are eligible, some can make sure that as many eligible people as possible get through on the phone to apply.” In the midst of a long week with many more demands than we had resources to meet the staff said this is important. “We’ve got to do it.” The TJC staff make great sacrifices to work for health care justice, knowing that their commitment makes a difference in people’s lives every single day. So, that night TJC staff and volunteers enabled several clients to get coverage. to apply.
We see ourselves, too, as messengers. Our job includes informing neighbors who, like us, have lives that are abundant and secure, about the always difficult, sometimes desperate, lives of those we serve. And so, today we are using the call-in as a chance to illustrate the importance of health reform to real people. A New York Times reporter will be covering a few of those who are calling in. If Tennessee accepts federal funding to expand Medicaid, the people who are desperately hoping to win the telephone lottery will have health coverage, along with hundreds of thousands of others. It is a local story that conveys truths about the plight of the uninsured throughout America. And so tonight joined by community volunteers, and my ten year old we will be dialing for our clients. I love my job. I love my clients. I love my co-workers.
- Michele Johnson, Managing Attorney
