GRAND RAPIDS – Governor Rick Snyder on Tuesday continued to advocate for Michiganders to call their senators and tell them to take a vote on the House-passed Medicaid reform bill as soon as they can, adding that the later Michigan waits to do so the worse off it will be when the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes effect.
“My view is, we should just get it done,” Snyder told a roundtable of health professionals and stakeholders at his first stop on his state tour to advocate for Senate action to expand of Medicaid through HB 4714 . “This is the time for us to speak up. This is not time for a silent majority. This is time for a loud majority.”
And Snyder reiterated in both of his presentations that just one call is not enough.
“Don’t stop at once,” he said. “It makes a difference.”
But while still pushing for a vote as soon as possible, Snyder also said the act must be passed no later than fall.
The tour, called “A Conversation with the Governor,” is to stop in Grand Rapids, Battle Creek and Hastings, with later stops also expected in southeast Michigan. The idea is to get the attention of residents in the districts of Sen. Dave Hildenbrand (R-Lowell), Sen. Mark Jansen (R-Gaines Township), Sen. Mike Nofs (R-Battle Creek), and perhaps others, with the thinking that eight Republicans committed to voting yes on the bill and five more Senate Republican votes would achieve the 13-vote threshold that Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) seeks, sources familiar with the plans have said.
But while Snyder invited the senators in those districts to attend the meetings, there were no signs of any senators in Grand Rapids. Rather, several House members were present, including Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids), Rep. Winne Brinks (D-Grand Rapids), Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R-Alto), and Rep. Ken Yonker (R-Gaines Township). Snyder acknowledged this fact, but did not dwell on it in meeting with the press after his second and final presentation.
“I didn’t see any,” he said of the missing senators, adding that he will continue to invite them to future events. A media advisory said Snyder would be at Pennock Hospital in Hastings Wednesday morning, followed by the Family Health Center in Battle Creek about an hour later.
Aside from calling on residents to call their senators, Snyder on Tuesday also remarked that the fall would be the absolute latest time the Senate could vote on a Medicaid plan because of having to file waivers with the federal government, but he also stressed that his preference would be to have a solution well before then.
“There’s a fair degree of urgency, so hopefully we’re talking a question of days to weeks, not waiting until the fall,” Snyder said. “I need the law to go ask for waivers to begin, so that’s the steps in the process.”
Snyder also acknowledged that doing something on July 3 – the next scheduled session date for the Senate – could be a difficult task given the timeframe. The Senate is also expected to create a work group on the issue, but as of Tuesday evening there had been no announcement and would not be as Richardville was still confirming members for the group, his spokesperson, Amber McCann, said.
But, Snyder said, “there’s a date after that and a date after that, so one of those first or second dates after that, I would hope there’s a reasonable opportunity to get something done.”
Though no senators have exactly how they could improve upon the provisions of HB 4714, but they expect they can, hence the work group. And, Richardville has previously said, Senate Republicans need more time to review the bill. One complaint by Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive), for example, has been that the House had five weeks to review the bill that now sits in front of the Senate, but senators were expected to make a decision on it in five days.
Rep. Ken Yonker (R-Gaines Township), who was present at the event on Tuesday, said he heard the same from Sen. Mark Jansen (R-Gaines Township) and understands where Jansen and others may be coming from.
“There’s just so many moving parts with this that it is a complex issue and they have to be able to defend their vote and be able to stand up to their constituents that don’t agree with it and help them understand it,” Yonker told media after the event. “So I understand that pressure they’re feeling, why they’re feeling a little bit nervous with it.”
Yonker said he himself was a “hard no” on Medicaid expansion before Department of Community Health Director Jim Haveman pressed Yonker and Rep. Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake), chair of the House Michigan Competitiveness Committee, to think outside the box.
“Going from a hard no to a yes is a very difficult process, but we spent a lot of hours meeting and talking to people. And the more we learned, the more we became yes to the point that we’re solid yeses,” Yonker said of he and Shirkey. “Because when you look at the implications of how the affordable care act is going to play out and start in 2014, we can’t afford not to do this. We have to do this.”
He continued: “And if you look at this, the reform that we have in our bill allows us to measure that and know how successful this is going to be. It’s an opportunity for us. It isn’t what I would have chosen to do way back when the federal bill passed, but it did, it is, I can’t change that, so I’m looking at this point, how can this work for Michigan.”
Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids), also present at the event, had much the same to say about the importance of HB 4714.
“We’ve got to get back. We’ve got to take vote,” Dillon said. “I believe the votes are there if they are allowed to just put a vote up on the board.”
As for the lack of senators present at the event, Dillon said that he hopeful the senators will hear the message from the people.
“…Medicaid expansion has had overwhelming public support since the governor announced his support for it back in February. There’s a reason that people support it, because it makes sense,” he said. “It makes sense to small businesses, it makes sense to taxpayers. The only thing holding this up is Republicans making a political calculation in the Senate. I hope that the overwhelming force of the people that support this will eventually get the message to them.”
As for the work group, Dillon said the House did a lot of work on the bills and his hope for the work group is that any changes to the bill “don’t upset the delicate balance that is needed in the House to get a bipartisan bill passed,” he said.
“If they are going to do work groups, that’s fine, but it really needs to be done in the next couple weeks, not months,” Dillon said.
A question to Snyder from the audience asked if there was anything that he could do to force the Senate back to take a vote on the bill, to which he answered that such did not have a clear legal answer. But, even if he could legally require them to come back, he has no ability to tell the chamber to vote.
After July 3, the Senate is scheduled to meet every other week through August 27, which is just before the Legislature returns to Lansing full-time.
A statement by the governor’s office said the state is projected to save $206 million in 2014 fiscal year by providing “Healthy Michigan” plan benefits (those in HB 4714) to those now receiving services paid for with general fund dollars.
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