Maintaining the Myth: How Tennessee Perpetuates Deficit Thinking about Recipients of Government-Sponsored Health Care

ABSTRACT

Deficit ideology about people who are poor permeates a plethora of social programs. Our research demonstrates how the state of Tennessee uses the Internet, legislation, law enforcement, the criminal justice system, and the media to reproduce and perpetuate deficit thinking about recipients of TennCare, the state’s health care insurance program. In routinely and systematically producing, publishing, and disseminating information about arrests, using pejorative language, and delineating the offenses, the state reinforces the idea that people who are on TennCare are a menace to society. Our work points to the need for continued action and research that exposes and challenges deficit thinking.

KEYWORDS:

• Health
• poverty
• social welfare policy