Governor Snyder Appeals for Medicaid Reform at Beaumont Town Hall Meeting

Governor Rick Snyder came to Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak on Monday, July 1 to ask community leaders and Beaumont employees for help in promoting passage of his Healthy Michigan plan for Medicaid expansion and reform.

“We have a problem that needs to be solved,” the governor told a packed auditorium at the Beaumont town hall meeting. “Politics are getting in the way of common sense solutions.”

“Healthy Michigan will create a medical home for those without insurance. This helps them to be successful and reduces cost for us. Healthy Michigan will also create a better platform to have a healthy health care system in our state, “ said the governor.

Gov.  Snyder was joined by a panel of speakers that included Beaumont President and CEO Gene Michalski; Sandor Shoichet, M.D., associate program director, internal medicine and ambulatory care; and Jeffrey Ditkoff, M.D., director of operations, Emergency Medicine.

Two community representatives shared stories of the impact of Medicaid coverage on their lives – including Rebecca Calappi, Beaumont Corporate Communications employee, whose adopted twin babies were covered by Medicaid for pre- and post-delivery care, before her Beaumont insurance was available to cover them.

The governor said 470,000 people – one out of every 20 in our state – would benefit from Medicaid expansion.

His call to action for town hall attendees was to go to http://www.healthymichigannow.com/ to sign a petition calling for Medicaid expansion.  “Then call your senator, and call them again and again and again. Then get five to 10 others to do the same,” he said.

In introducing the governor, Michalski noted that last year, Beaumont provided $80 million in unreimbursed care for uninsured patients, because Beaumont treats all patients, regardless of their financial circumstances.

“If you laid 80 million one-dollar bills end to end, it would reach from Detroit to the east coast of China—more than 7,700 miles,” said Michalski.

“The best way to provide health care is to give people the tools and coverage they need to stay healthy,” he said.

Dr. Shoichet noted that Beaumont provides primary care to 5,000 Medicaid patients and also to 2,000 patients who have no insurance through its Outpatient Clinic.  “I see patients who must choose to buy their medications or to pay their rent.”

Dr. Ditkoff described caring for an uninsured patient with asthma who had to borrow inhalers from friends, and a suicidal patient who had to wait days for placement in a mental health facility.

“This is not a downtown urban issue,” said Michalski. “It affects our friends and our neighbors.”

Source: Beaumont Health System