The effect of the high cost of health care in America has been painfully understood by millions of Americans for a long, long time. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) does many good things, but it did not adequately address the critical issue of cost. This will be a major issue to tackle as the ACA improves access to care, but more needs to be done to reign in health care costs.

The Time article (March 4, 2013 edition) entitled “Bitter Pill” documents the high cost of hospital services and their effect on patients. Similar articles could be written about how the high costs of insurance, pharmaceutical, adaptive equipment and medical supply companies also negatively affect us and our ability to access quality health care. The race for ever increasing profits has resulted in our nation having the highest costs for health care and abominable health care outcomes. Americans, delude themselves that this is just our Market system at work and we are very proud of our market system. The truth is health care is only a market within different health care sectors and among their providers (insurance, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, etc.). It is not a market for consumers as we are powerless to affect their charges or practices. There is little or no transparency on how they develop their charges and it is extremely difficult for consumers to determine how they actually spend our dollars. Add to these problems the fact that we developed over the years a health care system that rewarded volume and not health outcomes and you have the “perfect storm’ for consumers resulting in over 53 million of us without insurance, millions more struggling to pay medical bills and medical debt being the cause of over 50% of the nation’s bankruptcies.

It more than ironic that a health care system, ostensible designed to heal is actually making us sick. Stress and poverty are key social determinant of health. Our “healing system” bankrupts us and makes us ill.

Consumers must stand together and demand that our healthcare system reform itself or we will demand increased oversight and regulation from our government.

Corporations who provide our healthcare must be required to lower THEIR costs and pass their saving on to consumers, not use all their savings to grab more market, increase executive pay/ bonuses, contribute more to candidates, etc. Spending by health care corporations should reflect things that really matter to consumers, such as, affordability, sufficient, well trained staff and quality outcomes.

The Time article provides the incentive for all of us to engage in conversations that will lead to a less profit drive health care system to one that is health outcome drive. Every company in our health care industry has a wonderful Mission Statement calling for it to provide quality (and often affordable) products or services for the public. The disconnect between these wonderful statements and their practices is often huge. Together we must recommit to building healthy communities where health care is both affordable and of high quality.

• Medicaid Expansion Benefits Michigan’s Economy  (Michigan Daily) 1/13/13
• Medicaid Expansion Makes Sense for Michigan (Huffington Post Detroit) 1/15/13
• The Case for Expanding Medicaid Medicaid in Michigan (The Detroit News) 1/18/13
• Michigan Should Take Federal Money and Expand Medicaid (Holland Sentinel) 1/18/13
• Snyder gets 4k petition signatures for Medicaid expansion (The Detroit News) 2/4/13
• Pressure builds as Snyder nears Medicaid decision (Detroit Free Press) 2/5/13
• Medicaid expansion in Michigan (Michigan Public Radio Network) 2/4/13 – 2/5/13
• Advocates Urge Governor Snyder to Call for Medicaid Expansion (WKAR) 2/4/13
• Michigan organization pushes Medicaid Expansion (WDFN 1130) 2/5/13

HOUSE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

HB 4249

Chairperson Foster and Members of the Committee:

My name is Marjorie Mitchell, Executive Director of MichUHCAN. MichUHCAN is a non-profit education and advocacy organization on health care issues. We have been organized since 1990. I come to you today to, on behalf of my organization to strongly oppose HB 4249, which would prevent any local entity from adopting law that guarantees paid sick days.

Over the weekend, I spent some time reviewing the research on this issue – a large majority of these studies concur that paid sick days reduce the spread of disease and improve the health of a community. I recommend the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) website as a good place to review this research as well as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website.

A 2009 briefing paper by IWPR reported that employees who attended work while infected with H1N1 caused an estimated 7 million other Americans to become infected with the disease.

The lack of access to Paid Sick Days reduces productivity of worker who must stay on their jobs or lose wages, they can ill afford to lose; spreads disease leading to more lost productivity and costs employers dollars for workers who must often lose more days if their disease worsens due to the inability to get the rest they need or to see a doctor. Lack of Paid sick Days also raises the cost of health care when sick employees must visit an Emergency Room in the evenings in order to see a doctor and get medication.

Americans approve of Paid Sick Days for all employees. In a survey funded by the Rockefeller Foundation in 2010, 69% of registered voter respondents endorsed Paid Sick Days.

None of us want to be served by a sick restaurant employee or have our children/parents cared for by sick individuals. Paid Sick Days should be a “no brainer”. They are good for workers, good for our community’s health, good for reducing health care costs and good for employers who would benefit from a more productive staff at a small cost. Let us learn from the large businesses in our state who have learned that most employees do not abuse their Paid Sick Day privileges. Indeed, many are left unused at the end of the year. For them, Paid Sick Days are good business!

Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today.

February 21, 2013

Senator John Moolenaar

Chairman, Community Health Appropriations Subcommittee

Vice-Chair, Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee

RE:     SUPPORT FOR MEDICAID EXPANSION AND MI HEALTH MARKETPLACE

Dear Senator Moolenaar:

Thank you very much for allowing me to testify today regarding Medicaid expansion. My name is Elizabeth Lamoste. I am a third-year student at the University of Michigan Law School and I have a background in health policy analysis. I am a board member of the Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network (MICHUHCAN). MICHUHCAN is a nonprofit that focuses on health policy education and advocacy. We launched a campaign called Medicaid Matters for Michigan in January. Our campaign’s objective is to communicate to our elected officials, including you, the simple message that Medicaid Expansion Makes Sense for Michigan. We ardently urge you to support Governor Snyder’s proposal to include Medicaid expansion in the budget. We also urge you to appropriate funding for the MI Health Marketplace.

In less than a month, we collected over 4,500 petition signatures from Michiganders all across the state in support of Medicaid expansion and delivered them to Governor Snyder’s office. In January, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network released a survey finding that Michiganders favor Medicaid expansion by a 40-point margin.

As I talk to people about Medicaid expansion, they often, and rightly so, ask me about the policy arguments against Medicaid expansion. Provider capacity has been cited as an issue, but support from the provider community and the recent Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation provider survey illustrate that providers are willing to take on the challenge and opportunity of expanding access to care.

There is also concern about whether the federal government will actually fund Medicaid expansion. Medicaid expansion is part of the Affordable Care Act, which is good law. President Obama has publicly declared his commitment to Medicaid. And to speak in hypothetical terms for just a second, in the very small chance that Medicaid expansion is sacrificed as the President and Congress deal with the budget, there is no indication that states would be forced to bear the cost burden of expansion. If the federal government can’t afford it, it’s hard to believe that they would expect states to be able to afford it. So, where is the harm in signing on now?

I want to conclude by focusing the discussion on the people who matter most – the hundreds of thousands who are suffering because they are uninsured and can benefit from Medicaid expansion. These people live all across the state. They are our mothers and fathers, our sisters and brothers, and our dear friends. They deserve better, and we can do better right now. We launched Medicaid Matters to Me, and people bravely shared their personal stories of how they have suffered without health insurance. Here is an example:

Lynn is a 57 year-old woman from Warren. She is a full-time caregiver for her elderly mother and a friend who has muscular dystrophy. She has fibromyalgia, trigeminal neuralgia, spinal stenosis, and cervical problems, and she relies on pain and blood pressure medications. She’s currently uninsured because she can’t afford health insurance. She said, “I truly hope that I remain accident free and not sick enough to be hospitalized because if anything too bad happens, I better die. I will never be able to pay off that kind of debt.”

Lynn is not alone. We have hundreds of thousands of people with similar stories that are simultaneously heartbreaking and outrageous. We all need to acknowledge that we have an imperative as Michiganders to help each other and that right now we have a cost-effective opportunity to do so. If Lynn ends up in the hospital, I don’t think that anyone wants to have to tell her that she can’t access Medicaid because of poor politics. Let’s support Medicaid expansion so that she has access to health insurance.

Again, thank you very much for allowing me to testify today on behalf of Medicaid Matters for Michigan and MICHUHCAN. We urge you and your colleagues to support Medicaid expansion and appropriate funding for the MI Health Marketplace without delay. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at 248-420-0580 or contact@michuhcan.org.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Lamoste

Co-Coordinator, Medicaid Matters for Michigan

Board Member, Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network

Read the Testimony (PDF): Medicaid Expansion Testimony Senate Appropriations

In late November and mid-December, I had the privilege of attending two of the most exciting conferences I have ever experienced.  I participated as a member of a team sponsored by the Michigan Health and Hospital Association’s (MHA). The conferences were sponsored by the National Partnership for Patients (NPP). Participants included high level staff from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS); hospital CEO’s, doctors, nurses AND consumers of health services.

The issues of cost, quality and affordability were addressed by emphasizing how the authentic involvement of consumers in policy and delivery at federal, state and local levels will positively affect health and the quality of health care delivery. The efforts are still in the infant stages, but the data being gathered is quite impressive. Hospitals and communities who are embarking on this journey of inclusion and transparency are demonstrating higher consumer satisfaction, less harm to consumers in the delivery system, falling costs of care and better health outcomes. The consumer stories were inspiring. There are plans to expand this work to include  nursing homes

As Michigan works to fully implement the ACA and transform the health care system, MICHUHCAN will be working to recruit consumer voices to help inform and monitor the transformation. If you are interested in being a part of this effort, please contact me. I will keep you updated on national, state and local efforts.

Governor Rick Snyder gave his State of the State this past week and mentioned the need for improving the mental health system, but made no mention of expanding Medicaid. Numerous other Republican Governors have signed on to the Medicaid expansion because it only benefits their citizens. MICHUHCAN has been working hard to help Michiganders tell the Governor that Medicaid Matters in Michigan!

Why GOP Governors are coming around on Medicaid Expansion

Health Care to be growth area for State

Michigan Health Exchange to get $31 Million

Governor Rick Snyder said, “to build a stronger Michigan, we must build a healthier Michigan.” The Affordable Care Act is giving us a huge opportunity to build that healthier Michigan by extending insurance coverage to more Michiganders through Medicaid.

As of 2010, approximately 1,086,000 nonelderly Michiganders were without health insurance. Medicaid expansion would increase eligibility to 1.2 million people, about half of whom are currently uninsured.

Michigan will experience a net savings of about $1 billion if it expands Medicaid.

Medicaid expansion is a crucial piece to build a healthier Michigan in order to build an economically stronger Michigan!

LEARN more & SIGN the petition!