TN Medicaid expansion defeat lamented as 'good policy lost'

Insure Tennessee, Gov. Bill Haslam's health care expansion plan, died in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. It was a committee that bill sponsor Sen. Doug Overbey, R-Maryville, said in his final remarks — in an impassioned appeal to its members to vote in the the best interests of the state — was charged with voting for "good public health policy." "It's not a perfect proposal -- almost none of our legislation is. ... It is a step in the right direction," Overbey said. "I ask this committee to not be the one that stops the process" for the "good, working hard people."