A recent blog about a tragic situation in Tennessee highlights how difficult it is to create a “fair” healthcare system.

In this case, the patient is a nine-year-old severely disabled girl. She is maintained on a ventilator and feed through a tube. “She requires medicines and breathing treatments around the clock.” “She has to be suctioned every ten minutes or so to avoid suffocating on her own saliva.” She responds to family and caregivers minimally. And, she resides at home with her parents. Her father works and her mother is disabled with severe arthritis. Because family members cannot take care of her 24 hours a day, seven days a week, home health nurses provide most of the moment-to-moment care. However, home health nurses are very expensive, much more costly than if the patient were a patient in a nursing home (about $1000 a day).

The crux of the controversy between the parents and Tennessee’s Medicaid program – TennCare – is home care versus nursing home care. The parents want to keep their child at home with 24 hours nursing support, but TennCare will only pay for nursing home care in a skilled care facility.

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