Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Homebuyer Programs: This is a great time to buy a home!

Excerpt from: Community Housing Network (click for full article)

 

Many people think they are unable to buy a home because of limited income or past credit history. If that describes you, Community Housing Network may be able to help you realize your goal of homeownership!

See the programs below for more information.

Schuette Informs National Mortgage Settlement Monitor About Concerns with Banks' Settlement Compliance

Excerpt from:(click for full article)

 

Attorney General Bill Schuette today sent a letter to Joseph A. Smith, Jr. head of the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight to alert him to concerns that certain terms of the National Mortgage Settlement are not being met by the banks that signed on.

"As we continue to sort through the aftermath of the mortgage foreclosure crisis, Michigan homeowners can rest assured that we will hold all five banks accountable to the terms of the national morgtage settlement," said Schuette.

"I take any violations of the requirements of the settlement very seriously, and as a member of the monitoring committee, will work closely with all involved to ensure that the settlement is properly enforced," noted Schuette in the letter to Smith.

Political battle over Medicaid expansion may cost Michigan hospitals

Excerpt from: Detroit News (click for full article)

 

The outcome of a political battle over Gov. Rick Snyder's proposed Medicaid expansion could have serious consequences for Michigan hospitals, particularly the Detroit Medical Center.

Snyder is among eight Republican governors to break with his party in support of the Medicaid expansion, which is part of Obamacare. And like GOP governors in Arizona, Florida and Ohio, he's been fighting Michigan's Republican-controlled Legislature for support of the expansion.

As part of the proposed expansion, Snyder has recommended eliminating a $20 million payment to the DMC, which the health system has received since 2008 because of its large share of impoverished patients. The DMC cares for 25 percent of Michigan's Medicaid patients, and 40 percent are either on Medicaid or don't have any insurance.

Without Medicaid reform, mentally disabled will suffer even more

Excerpt from: The Oakland Press (click for full article)

 

Expanding Medicaid to cover an estimated 500,000 Michigan residents without medical coverage can provide mental health care for thousands who without treatment could end up homeless, receiving expensive emergency rooms care or in prison, mental health experts say.

“It is sensible public policy to tap federal funds already set aside to expand preventive and life-saving health care under Medicaid,” said Mike Vizena, executive director, Michigan Association of Community Mental Health Boards.

Expansion represents the best single opportunity to improve access to behavioral health-care services for Michigan’s citizens most in need, he added.

Paul Tarr, a legislative liaison for the Department of Community Health, agreed.

“It is my belief Medicaid reform will definitely help people with mental and physical disabilities,” said Tarr.

Experts urge Medicaid reform to help mentally disabled

Excerpt from: The Oakland Press (click for full article)

 

Expanding Medicaid to cover an estimated 500,000 Michigan residents without medical coverage can provide mental health care for thousands who without treatment could end up homeless, receiving expensive emergency rooms care or in prison, mental health experts say.

“It is sensible public policy to tap federal funds already set aside to expand preventive and life-saving health care under Medicaid,” said Mike Vizena, executive director, Michigan Association of Community Mental Health Boards.

Expansion represents the best single opportunity to improve access to behavioral health-care services for Michigan’s citizens most in need, he added.

Paul Tarr, a legislative liaison for the Department of Community Health, agreed.

“It is my belief Medicaid reform will definitely help people with mental and physical disabilities,” said Tarr.

Cuts to general fund support for mental health and substance use disorder services during the past decade “have resulted in a lack of access, reduction of services and creation of waiting lists for persons without Medicaid,” Vizena said.

For-Profit Experiment Plays Out in Two Mich. Districts

Excerpt from: Education Week (click for full article)

 

Educators and policy observers are keeping a close eye on two controversial experiments in private management of public schools now unfolding in this western Michigan city and in the Detroit-area community of Highland Park.

Citing chronic budget woes in the communities’ low-performing school districts, Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan last year declared a state of financial emergency and appointed an emergency manager for each district. The managers, in turn, hired two separate companies—Mosaica Education and the Leona Group—to run the schools.

Gov. Snyder, a Republican, has also appointed emergency managers for one other district, the Detroit public school system, and six Michigan city governments—almost all of which represent primarily black communities. The moves have caused pushback from civil rights groups and aggravated racial tensions in the state.

Medicaid expansion could lower infant mortality rate, report says

Excerpt from: Lansing State Journal (click for full article)

 

A proposed statewide expansion of Medicaid could bolster recent efforts to lower infant mortality rates in Ingham County, a new report concludes.

By providing healthcare for low-income women before pregnancy, the proposed Medicaid expansion beginning next year would give more babies a healthier start at birth, according to the report by the Michigan League for Public Policy.

Low-income women without children now only become eligible for Medicaid when they become pregnant.

“It’s absolutely a policy decision that will position both primary care and public health professionals to go after the root causes of infant mortality,” Ingham County Health Officer Renee Canady said.

Historically, Ingham County has ranked in the bottom half of 83 Michigan counties in infant mortality with an average annual rate of 6.3 deaths per thousand between 2006 and 2010, according to state officials. But the rate for black infants is much worse at 17.1 deaths per thousand annually on average.

Michigan's Legislature Resists Its Governor's Call to Approve Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion

Excerpt from: Forbes (click for full article)

 

Michigan’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, was among the many GOP state executives who made national headlines this winter by endorsing Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, America’s government-run health insurance program for the poor. But what isn’t making headlines is that Michigan’s legislature, like its counterparts in Florida, Ohio, and Arizona, is not going along.

Expanding Medicaid, said Snyder on February 6, “makes sense for the physical and fiscal health” of Michigan. “It also puts Michigan, rather than Washington, in the driver’s seat in terms of implementation [of Obamacare], which allows us to better address Michigan’s specific needs.”

Washtenaw County considers dental clinic for Medicaid patients

Excerpt from: AnnArbor.com (click for full article)

 

Washtenaw County’s next move to help low-income individuals gain access to services may be in the form of a new dental clinic for individuals on Medicaid.

“We have met people who are ashamed to smile, and that’s embarrassing. Their self-worth is lowered. Their ability to interact with people is diminished, and their ability to apply for a job is diminished,” said Dick Fleece, director of Washtenaw County Public Health.

Less than one percent of the 300 dentists in Washtenaw County accept Medicaid patients because the reimbursement rate for dental care through the program is “dismally low,” Fleece said.

There are various free clinics in existence now -- including Hope Clinic and the University of Michigan School of Dentistry's Community Dental Clinic -- but there is a greater need for a clinic to provide dental services, Fleece said.

Governor Snyder to support a $ 1 Million cap on auto insurance for catastrophic injury

Excerpt from: email

Sources include:medpage Today (click for full article)

Click here and here for more information (Crain's Detroit Business and mLive)

 

Those of you who were just in DC heard Connie Garner of UCP say in her presentation that we don’t do the right thing for long term care, even though “no one knows who they are going to be 24 hours from now.”And now apparently, to save maybe $125 per year, we’re going to cap benefits and shift more costs onto the Medicaid system.

That, of course, will only put more pressure on that program, which will probably lead to more attempts to cut it, which will be a big problem for people who need it. The short-sightedness of people who think nothing bad can ever happen to them, and they’ll never need benefits, makes me crazy.

“Unfortunately, this country is ‘all about acute illness and injury coverage,’ said long-term care advocate and nurse practitioner Connie Garner, who worked 8 years with the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), sponsor of the CLASS Act. Our healthcare system does not address unpredictable events that turn into long-term needs, she said. “You don't know who you are going to be 24 hours from now. We walk around this country acting like we do,’ she said. ‘If something that happens to you like that, you can't get the services and support you need to prevent you from slipping backward [into poverty]. We really haven't done this for this country.’ "

This is bad public policy for health care providers, for drivers, for the public at large, and for current and future people with disabilities.