Medicaid expansion forum is Tuesday

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge and co-sponsors are hosting a forum on Medicaid expansion in Tennessee on Tuesday.

The forum is scheduled from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, January 17, in the ORAU Pollard Auditorium at 210 Badger Avenue in Oak Ridge.

The forum will also be available by Zoom. You can access the Zoom meeting here:

• https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88578172161
• Meeting ID: 885 7817 2161

“The forum is for the purpose of further informing the Tennessee electorate on the urgency of Medicaid expansion in Tennessee,” a press release said. “But more importantly, it will seek to convince Tennessee legislators of their accountability in this Tennessee crisis on health care and the need for them to fix it.”

Zack Buck, an associate law professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, will moderate a panel of four speakers. Buck specializes in health law, bioethics, and tort law.

The panel will include:

• William Culbert, MD (board-certified family physician), D.C., B.S. engineering—speaking about “The Abandoned Patient.”
• Judy Roitman, LMSW, executive director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign—addressing “The Impact of Medicaid Expansion on Hospitals and Communities.”
• The Reverend Derrick Hammond, pastor of Oak Valley Baptist Church—addressing “The Impacts of Health and Health Care Disparities” within minority and marginalized communities.
• Matthew C. Harris, PhD, UTK professor of economics, specializing in health care—who will ask If we pull the Medicaid expansion lever, what can we expect to happen from an economic perspective?

The program will allow significant time for discussion, the press release said.

A host of co-sponsors are joining the Oak Ridge League in speaking about the importance of Medicaid expansion, the press release said. These include:

• Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority/Oak Ridge
• American Association of University Women/Oak Ridge
• American Association of University Women/Tennessee
• League Women Voters/Tennessee
• Tennessee Health Care Campaign
• SEIU Local 205 (Methodist Medical)
• National Alliance on Mental Illness
• New Direction Health Care Solutions
• Tennessee Disability Coalition
• Women’s Interfaith Dialogue of Oak Ridge
• Arts and Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville
• Oak Valley Baptist Church
• National Association of Social Workers/Tennessee chapter
• Nurture the Next
• Knox/Oak Ridge chapter of the Central Labor Council
• Interfaith Worker Justice of East Tennessee
• Tennessee Out-Reach Center for the Homeless (Torch)
• Oak Ridge Solutions on Racism
• Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge
• NAACP of Oak Ridge
• United Way of Anderson County
• Jobs with Justice of East Tennessee