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Couple To Divorce For Toddler's Health Care

Premature Son Could Qualify For TennCare Again If Family's Income Drops

POSTED: 7:33 pm CST December 10, 2009
UPDATED: 11:03 am CST December 11, 2009

A happily married couple may have to divorce in order to get their toddler the health benefits he needs. Molly and Jason Sheppard have been married six years, but they're thinking getting a divorce.

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“It makes me crazy,” said Molly.

Their son Daxton has a lot of medical problems. He was premature, born at 23 weeks, and was so small his father's wedding ring swallowed his wrist. He’s had heart surgery and eye surgery.

Because Daxton was a preemie, he was considered disabled and went on TennCare. But now TennCare is reevaluating his case and thousands of others like his.

The Sheppards just got a letter saying Daxton will lose his TennCare, meaning no more home nurses while his parents work. He may qualify for TennCare again if the family's income drops due to a divorce.

"I would do anything for my child,” said Molly.

A counselor at the Tennessee Health Care Campaign said he's seen at least six other couples take the same drastic measure in the last six months.

"I have two families that filed as of this morning and four other couples that are considering divorce in order to keep their children's health care coverage under TennCare," said Don Ramey, TN Health Care Campaign.

TennCare is re-evaluating 147,000 enrollees like Daxton who only qualified because they were once considered disabled. It hopes to save $169 million by cutting people with too much to qualify for TennCare.

Another one of the thousands is Nancy Hill's daughter, Becca. She's 17 months old and the size of a 4 month old. At birth, Becca weighed 13 ounces -- the size of three sticks of butter. Her mother can't imagine couples having to divorce to keep their coverage.

“It's completely unjust that in a country as rich as ours, people have to take such drastic measures for health care,” said Hill.

TennCare hopes to save $169 million by cutting off enrollees who only went on TennCare because of a temporary disability, such as prematurity, that may no longer be effect.

Some of those will be able to keep their TennCare if they can show they qualify under a different category.

The Sheppards said their son is making progress and they hope that in a couple of years he won't have such high medical bills.

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