Gov. Lee Must Also Lift Up Tennesseans Slipping Through the Cracks From Lack of Medicaid Expansion

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In response to Governor Bill Lee’s State of the State address, Lenda Sherrell, state director of the Southern Christian Coalition issued the following response: “It is admirable for Gov. Lee to lift up the nearly 300,000 Tennesseans facing serious mental health challenges whom he describes as “slipping through the cracks.” We ask that Gov. Lee not overlook the roughly 163,000 Tennesseans caught in the coverage gap who are also slipping through the cracks because Tennessee has not expanded Medicaid. “When Gov. Lee was elected he assured us that he would be “the governor of every Tennessean.”  To honor this promise, he must govern in a way that also protects the least of these, our brothers and sisters, as Jesus taught us. Expanding Medicaid would be in accordance with this promise and the Christian faith.”