Effort to deny health plan to smokers dropped

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner is abandoning a proposal to refuse health insurance to new state employees who smoke.
Turner, of Nashville, announced on the House floor that he is withdrawing the proposal under the “strong encouragement’’ of fellow Democratic Rep. John Litz, a tobacco farmer from Morristown.
The measure would have denied health insurance eligibility for tobacco-using state workers hired after Nov. 2.