With Friday marking the 1-year anniversary of the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Dan Gilmartin, Executive Director and CEO of the Michigan Municipal League, and Stephan Currie, Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Counties, issued the following statement on behalf of the Coalition for a Strong and Prosperous Michigan:

“While the COVID-19 pandemic caused immense suffering across the state, the American Rescue Plan Act has also given cause for hope. The $6.5 billion in federal stimulus allocated to Michigan through this landmark legislation offers our state leaders a once-in-generation opportunity to strategically invest in our collective future.

That’s why we have come together as business and labor leaders, policy experts and local officials to present a unified strategy that leverages these funds for a maximum return on investment. We urge our legislative leaders and the Governor to use the Michigan Prosperity Roadmap we have provided to invest Michigan’s ARPA dollars in ways that improves the economic value of thriving communities, advances equity, builds community wealth, supports entrepreneurship, prioritizes the need for talent and spurs business development.

It is vital that Michigan’s leaders put these funds to use as quickly as possible so that our communities and citizens can experience the fullest economic recovery possible, and we look forward to working with the Legislature and Governor Whitmer toward that goal.”

Read more about the Coalition for a Strong and Prosperous Michigan and its plan for leveraging the state’s American Rescue Plan Act dollars at www.MIRoadmap.com.

MAC, allies continue push to block mental health privatization

Senate bills that would privatize the state’s mental health system remain on the Senate floor, as MAC and other organizations work to defeat the legislation, which is strongly backed by Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Jackson).

The Senate placed Senate Bills 597-598 on the general orders calendar on Wednesday and adopted an updated version, but that has not changed MAC’s opposition — nor that of other opponents. MAC remains opposed to altering our public mental health system by giving financial control and decision-making powers to private insurance companies.

County elected officials, mental health advocates, labor and religious organizations and others continue to express great concern with the proposed policy change. More than half of Michigan’s counties have approved resolutions sharing great concern with the Senate bills, which could devastate services to thousands of individuals and their families who depend on the public behavioral health system for daily and lifelong supports.

In addition to the policy bills, Senate Bill 714, also introduced by the Sen. Shirkey, received an updated version that would increase spending from $350 million to just shy of $540 million. A $15 million fund shift from local funds to the state general fund for Medicaid mental health services is included, but it’s tied to whether SBs 597-598 become law.

Please continue to reach out to your senator directly with MAC’s advocacy tool and share information from MAC and our allies:

• Poll on Mental Health Policies (CMHAM/EPIC-MRA)
• MAC Policy Brief on Senate Bills 597-598
• CMHAM Report Card on Senate Bills 597-598

For more information on this issue, contact Meghann Keit-Corrion at keit@micounties.org.

 

House committee advances $1.15 billion for local pension grants

On Thursday in a joint committee meeting of the House Appropriations Committee and the House Tax Policy Committee, House Bill 5054 was voted out to the full House. This supplemental spending bill would provide $1.15 billion in grants to local governmental units to bolster their pension programs.

Specifically, HB 5054 would provide $900 million in grants up to $100 million per local unit that currently have pension plans funded at 60 percent or less. Strings attached to this grant program would include:

• Making all actuarially determined contributions
• A freeze on any contractual benefit enhancements for 10 years
• Maintaining discount rates and assumed rates of return
• Adoption of the most recent mortality tables
• Agreement to be subjected to corrective action plans for 5 years

In addition to the $900 million, the HB 5054 provides $250 million in a grant program for those local units funded above 60 percent. The maximum award in this category could not exceed 5 percent of available funds and would come with the following strings attached:

• Pre-fund any retiree health care
• Make all actuarially determined contributions
• Maintain discount rates and assumed rates of return
• Adoption of the most recent mortality tables
• Grants applied first to pension systems so that they system is 100% funded

FOR THOSE UNITS ALREADY FUNDED AT 100 percent, grants from the $250 million account could be used for principal payments on any outstanding debt obligations or, if the unit has zero debt, for infrastructure investments. 

These funds would come from the state General Fund surplus and not from federally allocated COVID relief funds.

MAC is still reviewing the benefits to counties and the potential interactions with bargaining rights.

The bill now moves to the House floor for consideration.

For more information, contact Deena Bosworth at bosworth@micounties.org.

 

A new poll commissioned by the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan and conducted by third-party survey provider EPIC-MRA found 67% of Michigan voters prefer the public mental health system to be managed by public entities who specialize in mental health care vs. turning the system over to private, for-profit companies.

Last year, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Shirkey introduced Senate Bills 597 & 598 which would privatize all Medicaid mental health services by giving full financial control and oversight to for-profit insurance companies. The EPIC-MRA polling shows two out of three Michigan voters would NOT support that change.

The poll was conducted in January 2022 among active and likely November 2022 general election voters across Michigan with a margin error of +/-4%. It comes at a critical time as communities across Michigan and the U.S. face a growing need for mental health support in the wake of the coronavirus. Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer also prioritized mental health funding in her State of the State address this past January, proposing $361 million to open school-based clinics and fund mental health professionals inside schools and increase access to mental health screenings. Other key data points from the poll include:

• Nearly 3 times as many Michiganders oppose the privatization of the state’s mental health services for Medicaid patients (the purpose of Senate Bills 587 & 598). 67% oppose while only 24% support that privatization.
• 76% of voters are concerned that private, for-profit health plans, do not have a good track record in treating patients with mental health needs and fear they will make matters worse.
• 73% of voters are concerned that high overhead costs of the private health insurance companies (double that of the public system) and the corporate profits that these companies take out of the taxpayer-funded Medicaid system will lead to less mental health services for those in need.
• The data also found factors that make a public mental health care system more cost effective than a private system, including active management of comprehensive services, a person-centered planning approach and high medical loss ratios (low spending on administrative costs to allocate those dollars towards Medicaid beneficiaries).
• Nearly 4 times as many Michiganders are less likely to support their legislator if he/she supports privatization of mental health services for Medicaid patients than those more likely to support that legislator: 40% less likely compared with only 11% more likely.
• Twice as many Michiganders think that Governor Whitmer should veto legislation if it passes than those who think she should sign the bills: 54% favor veto with only 27% favoring signing

“Our members have heard of concerns firsthand from their constituents and these results just confirm voters worry about letting private health plans take control of the services for our most vulnerable populations,” said Stephan Currie, the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Counties. “It is clear that Michiganders and County Commissioners from across the state believe that keeping a local public mental health system is best.”

For the past 50 years, the mental health system in Michigan has been run and operated by county-based government entities to serve Michiganders with complex mental health, emotional disturbance, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and substance use disorders. The study by the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Integration found that Michigan’s public mental health system has a long tradition of high performance. Each year more than 325,000 Michiganders receive their services and care from the Michigan public mental health care system. The legislation under consideration in the Michigan State Senate would eliminate the existing Michigan public mental health care system and shift $3.5 billion of these state and federal dollars spent annually on this to private for-profit insurance companies based in Missouri, California, Minnesota, Arizona and Indiana.

“When Michigan ultimately develops a better system of behavioral health care, it must be designed around the needs of the individuals and families being served,” said Sherri Boyd, Executive Director of The Arc—Michigan. “While today’s system needs work, the proposed legislation being discussed here reflects the needs of payers first, not people, which is the primary reason it is not being better received by the public. We believe better solutions are out there and look forward to working with our state’s policy leaders to help identify and implement them.”

In a separate report, The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) gave health insurance companies that provide mental health services for treatment of mild-to-moderate mental health cases 2.4 out of 5 stars. Supporters of the public mental health care system are concerned that health insurance companies will not be able to provide services for adults with severe mental health needs, according to this new poll. Additionally, other states (such as Iowa) who have selected private companies to manage mental health care have found they do not provide the same level of care or understand the unique needs.

“As survey findings underscore, Michiganders strongly oppose Senate Bills 597 & 598. Their concerns revolve around the weak track record that the private health insurance companies have with mental health services and the high overhead costs and profit taking of these companies – syphoning tax dollars out of the system designed to serve some of the most vulnerable Michiganders,” said Robert Sheehan, CEO of CMHA. “Michiganders see through the false portrayal of these bills as improving the lives of the Michiganders. They see the damage that these bills will do to the state’s public Community Mental Health system and, as a result, to the health and quality of life of the 325,000 Michiganders who have long relied on this system for high quality mental health services and supports.”

More than 100 Michigan-based groups oppose the privatization of mental health care, including the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association, the Michigan Association of Counties, over 30 boards of county commissioners, over 50 mental health provider organizations, judicial and school-based organizations, the Michigan Catholic Conference, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and organized labor groups.

State commits $1.2 billion to health response on COVID

A supplemental appropriation bill signed by Gov. Gretchen Witmer this week commits $1.2 billion to health care efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill, now Public Act 9 of 2022, includes appropriations to address health worker recruitment and retention, plus funding for COVID-19 early treatment and various testing supports.

Highlights of the spending bill include:

• $300 million for eligible health care recruitment, retention and training programming for new investments. A health care provider must demonstrate an eligible qualifying need under the rules and regulations of the federal coronavirus state fiscal recovery funding and must not request funds for any investments related to recruitment or retention announced before Dec. 1, 2021. The bill also requires 75 percent be allocated for acute care and behavioral health care providers, which would be administered by the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, and requires 25 percent be allocated to post-acute care providers and Federally Qualified Health Centers.
• $10 million as a competitive grant program for nursing facilities to convert multi-resident rooms into single-resident rooms. Grant awards would reimburse 50 percent of the cost, and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) would have to prioritize converting rooms with more than 2 residents into single-resident rooms.
• $29 million to assist nursing homes fund physical repairs and improvements of the facility. There is a $500,000 cap for each nursing home.
• $29.7 million to local and tribal health departments, as well as schools, to support staffing costs of COVID-19 testing and contact tracing. Of this, $14.9 million specifically goes to school districts, public school academies, intermediate school districts and nonpublic schools. The bill prohibits MDHHS from allocating funds to any local public health departments in which a county board of commissioners has passed a resolution rejecting these funds within 30 days of effective date of this act.
• $10 million for programs and planning for a new state public health and environmental science laboratory.

A further detailed analysis can be found here.

For more information, please contact Meghann Keit-Corrion at keit@micounties.org.