Holly Fletcher

USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Presidential politics and disappointment over legislative leadership took down two proposals regarding Insure Tennessee in a House subcommittee.

The Banking and Insurance Subcommittee heard testimony from those in favor of a measure, HJR0521, to empower Gov. Bill Haslam to enact Insure Tennessee through any means necessary.

But the sponsor, Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis, withdrew the resolution after instructing the purple-clad Insure Tennessee supporters to make the health insurance expansion plan an issue in this year’s campaign for the General Assembly.

Miller, who started off calling himself heartbroken about the situation, said getting Insure Tennessee through the legislature would require leadership, which he had not seen in the House or the Senate.

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"I knew what the inevitable was in that committee. The votes were not there," Miller told The Tennessean. "I hope every member will be faced with the question 'Why did you not support Insure Tennessee.' "

Haslam proposed Insure Tennessee, a tiered system, to use federal Medicaid funding to expand health insurance coverage. Two subsets of state senators killed Insure Tennessee in 2015 before the proposal ever made it to either floor for discussion and a vote. Much of the opposing rhetoric characterized the proposal as a further extension of Obamacare.

A bill from Rep. Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, to put a non-binding referendum on the November ballot asking whether voters support expansion with a "yes" or "no" was thwarted by Rep. Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin, who introduced — an ultimately successful — motion to send the measure to summer study.

After public opinion polls and analysis by regional universities of those eligible, it's time, Fitzhugh said, to ask "what our bosses think, and I'm talking about those who elect us."

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Fitzhugh said a referendum was a risk that voters might say no, thus likely killing a future push for the plan, but that after two sessions of rhetoric in the General Assembly, a one-sentence question on the ballot was due.

Durham said it was important to know who would sit in the Oval Office in Washington before giving voters a chance to voice an opinion. The presidential vote will matter regardless if it’s a Democrat or Republican, Durham said, citing that Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, pushed through a Medicaid expansion plan. Durham said he thought Texas Sen. Ted Cruz would be against further expansions.

“It’s important to have as much information as possible even before we put it to voters,” Durham said. “We need to know who the president is."

Fitzhugh and two committee members, Rep. David Shepard, D-Dickson, and Rep. Joe Towns Jr., D-Memphis, commented after the voice vote that they didn’t think Tennesseans needed to know who the next president will be to have an opinion on whether the state should pass Insure Tennessee.

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House Democrats slammed Durham for helping push it to the summer review.

“I think we should never be afraid to hear from the people,” Towns said.

The committee room was packed with supporters from across the state wearing the now recognizable purple shirts for Insure Tennessee.

Michele Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, said the failure to bring the resolution to a vote pointed to a leadership void that has left Tennesseans with elected officials who aren't tending to the "people's business."

"We didn’t expect Insure Tennessee would pass today. It has less to do with the merits of it and more to do with the leadership," Johnson said. "There has been a lack of leadership this session.”

The legislators are looking to 2017 as the next serious reprisal of Insure Tennessee to give legislators the chance "to catch up with the people," Towns said.

Miller said he will refile the resolution, if he's back in the legislature, and hopes Haslam will be engaged with the plan.

"What I hear more than anything else, from the opposition, is it’s not Insure Tennessee as much as it is the hate of President Obama. To me that doesn’t make any sense," Miller said. "It's not the Affordable Care Act. It's not Obama's initiative. It's Gov. Haslam's initiative."

Reach Holly Fletcher at 615-259-8287 or on Twitter @hollyfletcher.