Hear the radio version of this story.
The lawmakers chosen by House Speaker Beth Harwell to come up with an alternative to Insure Tennessee are close to presenting some of their ideas.
The group says it might be just three weeks away from showing federal authorities the outlines of an actual plan.
Harwell's "3-Star Task Force" seems to favor giving more support to clinics, over offering poor Tennesseans government insurance through Medicaid.
That's somewhat encouraging to Mary Bufwack, the president and chief executive of Neighborhood Health, a network of nonprofit clinics around Nashville that provide primary and OB/GYN care. Bufwack agrees getting low-income people in to see doctors would be a good thing, but who pays for what happens after that, when those doctors discover medical problems that need more treatment?
"Expanding primary health care actually sometimes uncovers and identifies problems that need more specialists," Bufwack says. "My concern is we make sure the people have the access needed to specialty, hospital and other kinds of services that are absolutely vital."
Plus, Bufwack says, Tennessee's clinics are nowhere close to being big enough to handle the number of people who need coverage.
Perhaps as many as 300,000 Tennesseans make too little to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act, but still don't qualify for Medicaid. This is who the Insure Tennessee plan was supposed to cover, and Bufwack says the state's clinics could handle perhaps half that number.
Bufwack was one of a half dozen people who spoke Tuesday at a hearing of the 3-Star Task Force in Nashville. The meeting was the group's sixth since lawmakers adjourned for the year in April.
The task force's chairman, Republican state Rep. Cameron Sexton of Crossville, says the group expects to take an incremental approach. Yet clinics could be a big part of the task force's plan. Members expect to have that proposal ready by June 21, when they hope to have a meeting with Medicaid officials in Washington.
Correction, 6/1/16: This post originally misstated the name of Neighborhood Health.
Copyright 2016 WPLN News