The Body Count is Underway

Back when Bredesen announced his cuts to TennCare and the beginning of disenrollment and medication prescription limits, the usual rhetoricians of the Left began saying "People will die because of TennCare cuts." You hear stuff like this all the time from certain quarters, so it gets tough to tune in or take it seriously.

Except that Sharon Cobb has documented at least one, and she claims four, deaths attributable to Bredesen's cuts!

im Bryant, TennCare enrollee, who was not able to obtain the medications prescribed for him, died at age of 50. He leaves behind his wife, Barbara, one daughter, two sons and two grandchildren.

Will we now see Tennessee Democrats take up a body count the same way national anti-war / anti-Bush Democrats have with the Iraqi War? It would be tough for Bredesen's re-election, so you have to wonder.

In all fairness, some on the right are also painting Bredesen with the "sick, elderly and poor will die" target. Trying to do this seems a bit opportunistic for the Tennessee Right since I can't recall any taking up the "reform before cuts" banner. There is a reform plan (I've lost the link at the moment.) out there that deserves a look, but no one on the Right seems interested; the Left seems mostly to want Bredesen to make it all like it used to be, cost be damned.

If a Republican gubernatiorial candidate were to take up that reform banner (Hello? Beth Harwell? Answer your phone.), it would take away Bredesen's most powerful calling card to voters, his whole raison d'etre for being elected. It might even attract a few Democrats who are bothered by Bredesen's approach.

In the meantime, the Bredesen Body Count is 4.