Legislative Update Week of November 26th

The first week of the legislative lame duck term was off and running right away this week. The House and Senate started working on several issues including some issues important to physicians around Michigan. Wayne State Medical School also made it up to the Capitol this week providing their insight to lawmakers on issues like tort reform and graduate medical education. Let's jump right into it.

House:

The House started their week of long goodbyes from members that will not be returning to Lansing at the end of the year. The House did consider and pass Senate Bills 402 and 403 that would provide protections to physicians to report patients to the Secretary of State, in their opinion, the patient should not be operating a motor vehicle. The package will now make its away to the Governor's desk where all indications are that the legislation will be signed.

The House Health Policy committee met on Thursday with an extensive agenda but ended up only considering Senate Bill 693, a bill that would create a health insurance exchange in Michigan. Testimony was impassioned by those who were against not just the exchange but the entire Affordable Care Act asking the members of the committee not to vote for the bill. The testimony continued and extended the comments that were made about the subject earlier on in the year to the end of committee, where Chairwoman Haines called for a vote on the bill. The bill failed to gain support out of committee with a count of 9 against, 5 in favor, and 2 passing. The Speaker put out the following statement:

“It was my hope the committee would find that a state-run exchange afforded us more control over the unacceptable over-reach by the federal government regarding the health care of Michigan citizens,” Mr. Bolger said in a statement. “After due diligence, however, it is clear that there were too many unanswered questions for the (Health Policy) committee to feel comfortable with a state-run exchange and we will not have one in Michigan.”

The committee adjourned for the day after the vote where rumors were that it would be the last House Health Policy committee for the term. MSMS will continue to monitor the activity of the committee.

The House Insurance committee also came into session on Thursday this week and went to recess right away. The committee did not reconvene once the House session started due to what some say was a lack of a substitute bill for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield conversion. The committee will be scheduled to meet in the coming week.

Senate:

The Senate brought a dogfight to the floor between interest group by working on Senate Bills 1115, 1117, and 1118. These are three out of the four tort reform bills that MSMS has been supporting and working on. After hard work between the groups some compromises were made and placed in the bills. The Michigan Association of Justice was able to get some more amendments placed into the legislation that were not favored by MSMS. With the amendments being added the Senate voted all three bills to the House where the work will continue. MSMS will be working to take out some of the harmful amendments added during the Senate session.

The Senate Appropriations committee met to consider Senate Bill 1359, among others, which provided a fix for the Insurance Claims Tax that was added to replace the Medicaid Use Tax.  The Senate Fiscal Agency along with the Michigan Department of Treasury projected that with the $400 Million that needed to be made up with the repeal of the use tax the state was going to be $144 Million short in funding for the current fiscal year. The committee heard testimony from General Motors being opposed to the legislation since it would be a cost for them since they self insure their employees. At the end of the committee there were pretty strong signs that getting a fix for the Claims tax was going to be difficult.

The Senate Health Policy committee also met this week to consider House Bill 5315 and Senate Bill 975. MSMS commented to the committee that it has concerns with SB 975 but that we were working with the sponsor to find a solution to our differences. Both pieces of legislation were passed to the full Senate on party lines.

Wayne State Lobby Day:

Wayne State students speak with
Senator Smith.

Wayne State brought some of their up and coming physicians to the Capitol to have meetings with legislators and to lobby them on two issues that they felt were important to them, Tort Reform and Graduate Medical Education. With over 65 students invading the Capitol, several groups of students were able to meet with members directly in their offices, while other groups caught them in the lobby of the Senate and House as they made their way out of the chambers.

Drs Bizon and Elmassian addressing
the Wayne Students.

Later in day Dr. Bizon and Dr. Elmassian joined the students to share their thoughts on the future of medicine, why it was important to be lobbying to the legislature, and how they can make a difference in their community. Both were able to join the students later in the afternoon to work with them and support their efforts to lobby the legislature. Dr. Elmassian commented on how he was impressed with the turnout from the students and how we needed to continue to have efforts like this moving forward. "All schools should be thinking of doing this, it would be great for medicine and their future as physicians."

Next week should bring more activity in the legislature, stay with MSMS to get the up to date information including when committee meetings are and what they are considering for the day on the House and Senate floors. Go to http://www.msms.org/advocacy to get all of the information you need.

Legislative Update: Week of November 19th

With elections finally over and the legislature facing its final weeks in Lansing, the chaos of lame duck is about to start. With the House Republicans losing five members, those leaving have agenda items that they would like to see get done in these short weeks. Those members find themselves fighting against the Governor who also has issues that he would like to see completed before the House and Senate head home for the holidays.

Let’s take a look at what we feel will be the top five projects the legislature will be working on in this coming lame duck session:

1.      Blue Cross/Blue Shield Mutualization: With the Senate pushing through their legislation before Election Day, we find that the House has a different story. Hearings have started in the House Insurance committee and have been marathon meetings starting last week and going through this week discussing issues surrounding Medigap and having the Attorney General Bill Schutte testifying that with this package we are pushing Michigan senior towards a cliff, possibly leaving them without the some of the coverage seniors need. MSMS has amendments it will be looking to introduce in the coming weeks to the package protecting some the privileges offered under PA 350.

2.      Personal Property Tax Reform: This is a request and an issue that is important to the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor. This has been an interest to this administration in the past. While LG Calley was a member of the House he was the minority chair for the House Tax Policy committee where eliminating the PPT was an interest to him at that time. A good thing for the LG is that Speaker Bolger is of the same opinion as him, I would imagine that the House will work to get the PPT off the books before they head home.

3.      Health Care Exchanges: With the Senate tackling this issue earlier this year, the House had a wait and see attitude when it came to the exchanges, first waiting for the United States Supreme Court to render its decision then waiting to see the outcome of the elections, the House now faces either federal implementation for work hard over the next few weeks to get a state exchange in place. We'll see what the legislature can accomplish when the majority feels that this isn't the program they wanted to deal with.

4.      Regional Transit Authority: With Detroit dealing with several financial problems, the thought of a regional transit authority would ease those concerns that surround the transit system. This issue has come up time after time and has never been able to make it out of the legislature, maybe this time it could.

5.      PA 4 Replacement: With Michiganders choosing to take the Emergency Financial Manager act off the books we find the state going back to the Emergency Manager act taking away some powers that some would argue were able to get some off the cities and school districts back on better footing. Now some feel there needs to be a replacement that would still provide the authority that the managers need to get these municipal units back on course.

Other items on the horizon could be mining taxes, educational achievement authorities, and the discussion that with the failure of proposition 2 and 4 if that is a signal to the legislature that Michigan is ready to be a Right to Work state.

MSMS will be making our final push for this legislative session on Tort Reform. We still continue to feel positive that we could get some movement on this during lame duck. We also will be working on getting our impaired drivers legislation moved from the House floor and to the Governor's desk and hopefully seeing movement on Expedited Partner Therapy by sine die.

Stay with MSMS throughout this lame duck session to get the latest information affecting you at http://www.msms.org/advocacy.

Legislative Update Special Edition (Election Wrap-Up)

As the election results get finalized, we wanted to pass along to you the unofficial results from the recent election.  As you’re well aware, President Barack Obama soundly defeated Governor Mitt Romney here in Michigan, but here are other noteworthy elections in the state last night:   

·         Senator Debbie Stabenow also scored a strong victory over former Congressman Pete Hoekstra. 

·         The state Supreme Court returned Justices Markman and Zahra to the bench and Democratic nominee Bridget McCormack locked up the third open seat on the court.  The Republicans retained their 4-3 majority on the high court. 

·         All six ballot proposals were defeated.

 

The House Republicans retained their majority by a 59-51 advantage (down from 64-46).  Here are some of the key races highlighted:

·         House District 76 - Representative Roy Schmidt was defeated by Democrat Winnie Brinks. DEMOCRATIC PICK-UP.

·         House District 84 - Republican Dan Grimshaw was defeated by former Representative Terry Brown.  DEMOCRATIC PICK-UP.

·         House District 101 - Representative Ray Franz (Republican) defeated Democrat Allen O’Shea 51%-48%.  REPUBLICAN HOLD.

·         House District 91 - Representative Holly Hughes (Republican) was defeated by Democrat Colleen LaMonte in a razor thin contest by 333 votes.  DEMOCRATIC PICK-UP.

·         House District 57 - Representative Nancy Jenkins (Republican) faces former Democratic State Senator Jim Berryman.  Ms. Jenkins prevailed by over 2000 votes.  REPUBLICAN HOLD.

·         House District 71 - Representative Deb Shaughnessy (Republican) faced a rematch with her 2010 opponent, Democrat Theresa Abed, whom she narrowly defeated. Representative Shaughnessy was defeated by more than 3000 votes. DEMOCRATIC PICK-UP.

·         House District 63 – Republican Speaker of the House Jase Bolger faced Democrat Bill Farmer on Tuesday.  Speaker Bolger survived a scare by 800 votes.  REPUBLICAN HOLD.

·         House District 110 - Representative Matt Huuki faced Democrat Scott Dianda.  Mr. Dianda capitalized on the increased turnout and defeated Representative Huuki by just over 1000 votes.  DEMOCRATIC PICK-UP.

·         House District 52 - Representative Mark Ouimet (Republican) faced Democrat Gretchen Driskell in this that covers parts of Washtenaw County.  Ms. Driscoll defeated Representative Ouimet by over 3000 votes. DEMOCRATIC PICK-UP.

·         House District 39 - Republican Klint Kesto faced Democrat Pam Jackson in this open seat previously held by a Democrat which includes West Bloomfield, Commerce and Wixom in Oakland County.  Mr. Kesto prevailed by almost 3000 votes. REPUBLICAN PICK-UP.

·         House District 25 - Republican Sean Clark faced off against Democrat Henry Yanez in this seat consisting portions of Sterling Heights and Warren.  Mr. Yanez prevailed by just over 1000 votes. DEMOCRATIC HOLD.

·         House District 67 - Republican Jeff Oesterle faced Democrat Tom Cochren in this seat covering southern Ingham County. Mr. Cochren defeated Mr. Oesterle by over 5000 votes.  DEMOCRATIC HOLD.

·         House District 103 - Representative Bruce Rendon faced Democrat Lon Johnson in this seat that includes Kalkaska, Crawford, Missaukee, Roscommon, and Ogemaw Counties. Representative Rendon defeated Mr. Johnson by over 2500 votes.  REPUBLICAN HOLD.

·         House District 108 - Representative Ed McBroom faced Democrat Sharon Gray in this seat covering the Southwest Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Representative McBroom defeated Ms. Gray by over 3500 votes. REPUBLICAN HOLD.

·         House District 70 - Representative Rick Outman (Republican) faced a rematch versus former Representative Mike Huckleberry (Democrat) in this seat that includes Montcalm and parts of Gratiot Counties.  Representative Outman defeated Mr. Huckleberry by just under 3000 votes.  REPUBLICAN HOLD.

·         House District 23 - Representative Pat Somerville (Republican) defeated Democrat Tom Boritzki .  REPUBLICAN HOLD.

·         House District 106 - Representative Peter Pettalia (Republican) defeated Democrat Kenneth Hubbard in this seat covering Iosco, Alcona, Alpena, Presque Isle, and Cheboygan Counties. REPUBLICAN HOLD.