A Patient-Centered Medicaid Compromise

The most important piece of legislation in Michigan, and perhaps the country, remains idle on the floor of the Michigan Senate: Sen. Patrick Colbeck’s Patient Centered Care Act (Senate Bills 459 and 460). The act would provide better health care service and quality and at a lower cost to all Michigan citizens. It is the right way to reform Medicaid and has the potential to reinvent this great state.

It is impossible to reinvent Michigan if our state’s second largest expense, Medicaid, is simply expanded (as Gov. Rick Snyder wants) and not positively reformed. In addition to rising costs, research shows that Medicaid provides no better health outcomes for patients who are covered than if they had no coverage at all.

Why is a multibillion dollar program gaining little result? Two reasons: Medicaid patients do not have convenient access to primary care, and the care they do receive is inadequate.

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Source: Detroit News