Families USA Announces Recipient of

Tony Garr of Tennessee Is Recognized for His Work on Behalf of Tennesseans Who Lost Their Health Care Coverage

Washington, D.C. – Families USA, the national organization for health care consumers, last week recognized Tony Garr with the Consumer Health Advocate of the Year Award at the annual Families USA Health Action conference. The award, presented every year since 1998, recognizes of outstanding contributions on behalf of our nation's health care consumers.

“When Tennessee’s governor announced the largest state cutbacks of public health coverage in the history of our nation, Tony Garr mobilized the good will of Tennesseans to oppose those cuts,” said Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA. “Tony held high the torch of social justice, and he lit many other torches through his tireless efforts.”

Garr is the Founding Executive Director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign (THCC), a statewide nonprofit organization that works to secure affordable, accessible, and quality health care for all Tennesseans. Under his leadership, THCC has played a crucial role in representing the health needs of 1.3 million Tennesseans who were affected by the state’s TennCare (Medicaid) waiver.

He has worked vigorously against the biggest cutback in memory in any state Medicaid program, advocating for the hundreds of thousands of low-income Tennesseans who were targeted for losses in health coverage. 

Through his work at the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, the governor’s cuts were scaled back dramatically from 323,000 people to 191,000 people. Day in and day out, Garr continues to work to minimize harm to TennCare enrollees.

Prior working at the THCC, he was the Executive Director of the Tennessee Affiliate of the American Diabetes Association. One of his many accomplishments in this position was securing passage of the Tennessee Comprehensive Health Insurance Act (TCHIP), which created a high-risk pool for people with medical problems. Before that, he was Executive Director of the Cumberland Chapter of the National Hemophilia Foundation. He has also worked as an AFDC Eligibility Counselor for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, and as a Technical Training Director for the Peace Corps in Nepal.

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Families USA is the national organization for health care consumers. It is nonprofit and nonpartisan and advocates for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

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