(C) Tennessee Lookout
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TennCare was my key to opportunity, and now it’s my son’s • Tennessee Lookout [1]

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Date: 2025-09-15

When I think about healthcare in Tennessee, I think of my childhood and the long drives from rural Appalachia to Chattanooga to see a specialist for my partial blindness.

I think of TennCare, our state’s Medicaid program, and how I relied on the program again as an adult when I was diagnosed with cancer that almost derailed my future. But most of all, I think of my son who now relies on TennCare to cover his daily caregiving.

Without access to Medicaid, my family may not be here today. And yet, even with coverage, the safety net is already fraying. When Kramer Davis Health — the only clinic in Tennessee specifically designed for adolescents and adults with severe autism and intellectual disabilities — closes its doors this year, families like mine feel this impact immediately. For so many of us, TennCare is the only bridge to the kind of specialized care our loved ones need to survive and thrive.

TennCare supports nearly 1.5 million Tennesseans, funds rural clinics from the Cumberland Plateau to West Tennessee, and sustains vital specialty services like mental health treatments, addiction recovery programs, and care for children with complex medical needs. It also covers nearly half of all children and nearly half of all pregnant mothers in the state. The Medicaid cuts that Congress passed in the reconciliation bill threaten to sever a lifeline for many Tennesseans, especially in rural communities like the one I grew up in.

Born in rural Appalachia, healthcare was hard to reach for me and even harder to afford. My family depended on TennCare for everything. Because of my blindness, I spent much of my childhood traveling to eye specialists in Chattanooga. Years later, when I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, TennCare helped cover treatment, surgery, and follow-up care. Medicaid gave me back a childhood, allowed me to go to college, and even helped me break the cycle of poverty in my family.

Today, TennCare is just as essential to my son’s life as it was to mine. He lives with intellectual and developmental disabilities and has relied on a Medicaid waiver his entire life. Now, as an adult, TennCare provides him with the support he needs to live independently. Thanks to Medicaid coverage, my son is able to maintain stable housing, receive daily caregiving, and stay employed. Without it, he would lose everything, including his house, caregiving support, job, and most importantly, ability to thrive independently.

My Medicaid story spans generations, but the truth is the same: TennCare makes life possible As former director of Family Voices of Tennessee, I worked with families of children with disabilities or special healthcare needs. They turned to us to help navigate therapies, benefit programs, mentorship, and connection. Most of the families we served rely on TennCare because it covers treatments most private insurance companies simply don’t. They simply cannot afford to lose it.

The recent actions in Washington should concern everyone. The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill”, supported by eight of Tennessee’s nine-member congressional delegation, would slash Medicaid funding by $7 billion over the next decade. For our state, that means fewer resources for TennCare, the program that underpins healthcare for millions of children, people with disabilities, and rural residents.

Tennessee already has the highest number of rural hospital closures per capita in the nation, so we know what is at stake. Our state has nine rural hospitals–or 18%– that are at risk of closing with over one-fifth of the state living in such rural areas. Entire counties face the risk of being left without mental health care or other specialty care and services. TennCare is often the only reason providers can keep their doors open.

Already, we are seeing glimpses of the fallout from these cuts. A rural obstetrician at one of the state’s few remaining birthing hospitals says the system is on the verge of collapse, anticipating women’s and pediatric care likely among the first services to go. Another rural hospital damaged by Hurricane Helene now faces uncertainty about rebuilding and reopening because of reduced federal Medicaid funding under the Big Beautiful bill. If federal funding is slashed, more services will be cut, hospitals will close, and more communities will be left without care.

For families, the impact would be devastating. Imagine a child with autism losing access to speech therapy, a new mother in rural Tennessee who cannot find prenatal care because her local clinic shut down, or an adult with disabilities like my son, who could lose the support that allows him to live independently. Those are not hypotheticals — they are the direct consequences of cutting TennCare.

I’ve seen the Medicaid system from every angle: first, as a patient, then as a mother, and now as a public servant and advocate. I know what it’s like to depend on this program, but more importantly, I know that it continues to deliver essential care to millions. Medicaid gave me the chance to live a healthy life, and now it gives my son — and countless other Tennesseans — the same opportunity.

For families like mine, TennCare is survival. That’s why Congress’s proposed cuts are dangerous: they threaten not just services, but futures. I urge our leaders to remember the Tennessee families whose lives depend on this program and protect TennCare, not weaken it.







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[1] Url: https://tennesseelookout.com/2025/09/15/tenncare-was-my-key-to-opportunity-and-now-its-my-sons/

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