More than 500,000 people across 11 states have lost their Medicaid coverage since the unwinding of a policy that allowed people to stay in the program throughout the pandemic.
Healthcare
Senate Bill 7 provides a funding boost for small businesses, housing, health care, job retention programs, family programs, water shutoff prevention and more.
A virtual roundtable discussion Tuesday featured state and federal lawmakers seeking solutions to address Michigan’s critically under-resourced care needs for families and care workers.
Michigan Advance’s Monique Stanton writes, “Year after year, Michigan stands out in children’s health and in making sure our kids have health insurance. But more work is still needed to increase health insurance coverage and reduce costs for all families.”
Michiganders are having trouble accessing and paying for both physical and mental health care and want their state and federal lawmakers to prioritize driving down health care costs, including by capping insurance deductibles and curbing what insurers can charge patients, according to a new survey.
During an appearance on The Michigan Left with Andrew George last week Dr. Abdul El-Sayed said Americans could see a return to normalcy from the pandemic as early as this summer. With that said, Sayed believes “normal” is too small a bar to hurdle, and shouldn’t be part of the United States’ endgame.
When the pandemic arrived in Michigan last March, paramedics and other emergency medical technicians braced themselves for an onslaught of calls to bring individuals battling COVID-19 to the hospital. And while there was certainly a flood of COVID-19 patients to some hospitals, mostly in metro Detroit, calls to 911 dropped dramatically across Michigan as out-of-hospital deaths soared. Michiganders, including those facing serious illnesses, were avoiding the medical system.
“Doctors and nurses are dying at an alarming rate. They have a choice, naturally, to either resign their posts or show up and fight, but the nature of the business makes it abundantly clear most will choose to fight. Choose to die. Choose to sacrifice their hopes and dreams and hobbies, their retirements and vacations and their children’s affection for the public good. It’d be great to believe this is all overblown, but we know better.”