Legislative Update Week of February 10, 2014

Budget is the word on the street with both chambers a buzz about the upcoming budget season in Lansing. The official start of the season was on February 6th, when Governor Snyder presented his recommendations for that state budget for the coming fiscal year. This past week state departments started to get down to the individuals budgets for the departments and meeting with their respective appropriations subcommittees. Director Jim Haveman of the Department of Community Health delivered the budget message for to the House and Senate this week. Let's review those messages:

Governor's Budget Message:

Slide from Governor Snyder's Budget Presentation.

Both House and Senate Appropriations members gathered in the House Appropriations committee chambers to hear what message the Governor was going to bring to the legislature on the coming fiscal year. The Governor spent the start of his message reviewing the past three years that the Governor has had the reigns in Michigan. His message of Michigan being the come back state seemed to become the tag line that every member of the committee left with.

In the health arena the Governor wanted to focus new money on the following:

• An investment of $71.7 million for the Healthy Michigan Plan to implement expanded Medicaid coverage.
• $15.7 million in gross funding to expand the Healthy Kids Dental program into Kalamazoo and Macomb counties, providing an additional 100,000 children with good dental care.
• A total of $15.6 million to support the initiatives as recommended in the Mental Health Commission final report that was issued Jan. 2.

The Governors Mental Health Commission had recently reviewed their findings from their hard work to a joint meeting of the House and Senate Health Policy committees a few weeks ago but from that meeting there was no talk of what the Governor wanted in terms of funding for program, with the presentation of the budget lawmakers found out how much some of the efforts of the commission was going to cost. 

The Healthy Michigan Plan along with Healthy Kids Dental both saw bumps in funding as well, as the Governor continues his push to expand coverage for health care and dental care for children in Michigan. Moving away from health the Governor also talked about road funding and a need for an increase in funding and toted a funding increase for schools that is directed to the classroom. You can see the governor's presentation here. 

Director Haveman's Presentation:

Director Haveman had the daunting task of breaking down the budget for his department, providing both the House and Senate a presentation of the accomplishments of the current fiscal year and what the road map for the coming fiscal year looked like for the department. The Governor in his state of the state address said that he wanted to make Michigan a "no wait" state for certain services. The Department of Community Health Houses some of those services, lets review the recommendations for the coming year:

Slide from Director Haveman's Presentation.

• Overall Budget: $17.4 Billion Gross / $2.9 Billion General Fund (GF)
• Mental Health and Wellness Commission - $15.6 Million Gross
• Jail Diversion Initiatives - $3.4 Million (DCH Investment)
• Child and Adolescent Health Services Pilot - $2 Million Gross/GF
• Home visitation in rural areas - $2.5 Million Gross/GF
• Crime Victim Grants - $1 Million Gross (From Crime Victim Fees)
• Make Michigan a “no wait state” for senior home delivered meals and in home services - $5 Million Gross/GF
• Increase Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) site options - $16.4 Million Gross / $5.7 Million GF 
• Make Michigan a “no wait state” for the MiChoice Home and Community Based Waiver Program - $26.4 Million Gross / $9 Million GF
• Prevent Elder Abuse - $1 Million Gross/GF
• 2013 and 2014 Primary care rate increases to physicians - $75.5 Million  gross / $26 Million GF investment continues one half of the rate increase 
• Healthy Kids Dental expansion - $15.7 Million Gross / $5.4 Million GF

You can see the full presentation delivered by the director here. Graduate Medical Education was a topic that briefly touched upon in the committee. It is expected that further discussion on the administrations direction with the budget will come when the Medical Services or Medicaid will report to the committee in the coming weeks. 

The budget hearing will continue through  February and March. Stay with MSMS to get the latest up to date news on the budget process and more as issues break at http://www.msms.org/advocacy .