Working Together For Michigan Consumers To be Healthy

MCH Letter to Michigan’s Congressional Delegation Regarding Federal Healthcare Issues and Concerns

Dear member of the Michigan Congressional Delegation:

Michigan Consumers for Healthcare (MCH) is the state of Michigan’s largest consumer healthcare advocacy voice representing over 160 member organizations.  The focus of the MCH coalition is working collaboratively to address the opportunities that healthcare reform presents and provide a coordinated, strategic consumer voice at health care policy tables to achieve both immediate and long term results.

The following is a brief summary of our current federal concerns:

Please oppose cuts to Medicaid

There’s no administrative “fat” to cut in the Medicaid program and provider payments are already very low. Reductions in federal Medicaid funding levels will force states to make cuts in health care and long term services and supports for seniors and people with disabilities.  It will also result in cuts in home and community-based care as well as cuts in health care to children.  The end result will be passing costs down to states which must then transfer those rising costs on to seniors, people with disabilities, and middle-class families.

Please oppose efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act

A poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation immediately following the Supreme Court ruling found that 60 percent of the public would like Congressional opponents of the ACA to move on to other issues (likes jobs and the economy) and give the new healthcare law an opportunity to work. The public recognizes the ACA is now the law of the land and would like policymakers from both sides of the aisle to focus on proper implementation and to end the pointless discussion on repeal.

Please oppose efforts to reclassify insurance broker fees as a medical expense

Efforts to reclassify insurance broker fees as a medical expense under the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) provision of the new health care law is simply a way for the industry to get around ACA limits on profit-taking.  Such efforts, if adopted by Congress, would inevitably lead to higher premium costs and less access to needed medical care for Michigan consumers.

Please support a balanced approach to dealing with the federal deficit

There can be no solution to the federal deficit debate without new revenues.  We must preserve the safety net that protects our most vulnerable citizens, including seniors, the disabled and the poor.