Patient-Centered Healthcare Solution

A lot of time, money and effort have gone into the promotion of the expansion of Medicaid in Michigan.  It would be unfair to those who have worked so hard towards these ends to simply say no.  While I have been and will continue to be an outspoken critic of Medicaid Expansion and its parent legislation, the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), I have gone beyond simply saying no to highlighting the opportunity of the free market to better address the stated objectives of Obamacare:  “lower costs, improve quality and coverage, and protect consumer choice”.   In order to take advantage of these free market alternatives, we also need to go beyond a discussion of expanding Medicaid to that of expanding access to quality care.

What are these free market alternatives? To date, they have admittedly been primarily anecdotal in Michigan.  It has taken much effort and collaboration over the past few months with free market proponents across the country to finally solidify these options in the form of legislation.  The Patient-Centered Care Act (SB 459 and companion legislation) has now been introduced as a proposal to fill this void. 

SB 459 provides the regulatory infrastructure that would enable a low cost, high quality care free market environment within the confines of the ACA.  This regulatory infrastructure includes the development of a government assistance portal and licensing guidelines for multiple private exchanges that would serve as the point of contact for individuals and organizations that are required to purchase a qualified health plan under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.  The bill also features the establishment of a Low Income Trust Fund similar to that envisioned by Senator Caswell in his SB 422 except that the scope of disbursements for the fund would be limited to “gap insurance” for current Medicaid enrollees that invoke the high deductible component of their Qualified Health Plan. 

A second piece of companion legislation to be introduced shortly would convert current Medicaid enrollees to low cost, high quality Qualified Health Plans featuring Direct Primary Care Services and High Deductible Health Plans wrapped within a Health Savings Account.   Not only would the enrollees receive better care under commercial health plans rather than Medicaid, both the state and federal governments would save billions in healthcare costs yielding the potential for a much lighter load on hardworking taxpayers.

The net impact of both of these bills will be to lower healthcare costs for everyone in our state while promoting better quality of care.  So much of the discussion to date has focused on the estimated 400,000 individuals in the Medicaid Expansion pool.  These bills broaden the discussion by introducing a solution that promises to benefit all 10,000,000 Michigan residents.  In the process of doing so, we expand the number of residents who can afford to purchase quality healthcare services without expanding government assistance. 

For too long, government programs have been designed to divide us into demographic silos pitting one group of citizens against another.  Per our Michigan Constitution, our government was instituted for the equal benefit of us ALL.  It is about time that our policies reflected this core principle.

Our Governor has shown great leadership in his pursuit to “reinvent Michigan”.  The Patient-Centered Care Act provides us with an opportunity to do just that while still honoring the core principles that make Michigan a great state.  We need to go beyond simply keeping up with the other states falling in line to implement Obamacare without significant innovation.  We have an opportunity to create a healthcare system in Michigan that goes beyond taking care of segments of our society to easing the burdens of everyone in our society.  Creating a healthcare system that helps all of Michigan’s residents is truly Pure Michigan.

We are currently watching Detroit struggle through bankruptcy in large part because of out of control healthcare costs for city employees. This should be a wake-up call for legislators that we cannot continue to push these costs down the road and expect the problem to resolve itself. Rising healthcare costs can lead the state down the same path as Detroit if we don’t get a handle on them now.

It is time to go beyond propagating a system where employers are forced to cut employee hours to avoid penalties from the federal government, to creating a new system where our healthcare costs are so low and yields such high quality of care that employers flock to our state to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals in other states and countries.  We need to go beyond coping with a broken healthcare system and create one that is the envy of the free world…one that our Canadian friends under socialized medicine would cross the bridge in droves to take advantage of.  It is time to take advantage of the free market and reinvent our healthcare system in Michigan for the betterment of all of our citizens.