 michigan health care exchange statements after passage in the senate   the following is an excerpt from senate journal no 91 from november 10 2011 after the senate passed the bill on a vote of 2510 the excerpt contains the short title of the bill the record roll call vote and statements made for and against passage of the bill by senators  senate bill no 693 entitled  a bill to provide for the establishment of the mihealth marketplace as a nonprofit corporation to create the board of the mihealth marketplace and prescribe its powers and duties to provide for assessments and user fees and to provide for the powers and duties of certain state and local governmental officers and agencies the question being on the passage of the bill the bill was passed a majority of the members serving voting therefor as follows  roll call no 663   yeas 25  anderson gregory jansen pappageorge bieda hansen johnson richardville booher hildenbrand jones smith caswell hood kahn warren emmons hopgood marleau whitmer gleason hunter meekhof young green  nays 12  brandenburg hune nofs rocca casperson kowall proos schuitmaker colbeck moolenaar robertson walker                                         excused 1  pavlov               not voting 0  in the chair schuitmaker the senate agreed to the title of the bill senator colbeck moved that his name be removed as co sponsor of the bill the motion prevailed                             protests  senators colbeck kowall schuitmaker robertson moolenaar and proos under their constitutional right of protest art 4 sec 18 protested against the passage of senate bill no 693 senator colbeck moved that the statement he made during the discussion of the bill be printed as his reasons for voting no the motion prevailed senator colbeck s statement in which senators kowall schuitmaker robertson moolenaar and proos concurred is as follows i rise in strong opposition to senate bill no 693 my original cosponsor commitment was predicated on the understanding that this bill would provide a freemarket alternative to the affordable care act as a co sponsor i have worked hard to ensure that this bill would live up to this promise my concerns have not been addressed in this version of the bill and i have read it thoroughly rather than serving as a freemarket alternative i have come to the conclusion that this bill would simply further enable the implementation of the federal affordable care act commonly known as obamacare i have worked hard to earn a reputation in my short tenure for not simply saying no to legislation that fixes real problems i have worked hard to provide alternative solutions such is the case in senate bill no 693 our citizens do need access to affordable health care our state would have more jobs if we implemented a health care system that provided lower cost and higherquality care for our citizens rather than the citizens in other states i regret to say that this bill does not provide an effective solution to these very real needs that is consistent with the free market principles that made us a great nation i would liked to have had time to submit a vetted substitute that would have addressed the concerns that myself and others who believe that the government should establish a single exclusive marketplace for private health care plans but the timeline procedure did not allow for such a proposal in the senate my alternative solution would rein in the scope of the exchange to focus on the determination of eligibility for government assistance to citizens and the definition of data exchange standards that would enable private exchanges to provide consumers with applestoapples comparisons of health policies instead we have before us a bill that creates a michigan health marketplace that performs all exchange duties and a bill with no definition of what an exchange is it also performs a certification of private health care plans it provides plan enrollment plan purchasing grants for navigators that threaten traditional insurance broker roles and call centers to direct consumers to government ombudsmen by serving as a middle man for financial transactions i am concerned that the exchange may actually increase insurance costs because of the potentially significant payment delay to insurance providers in short i have no confidence that this bill will yield a freemarket solution the michigan health marketplace would be a nonprofit organization that is a product of our state and federal government with overarching control of health care delivery within our state a freemarket solution which focuses government organization on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of government programs such as medicaid medicare and va services and leave the comparison enrollment and purchase of private health insurance options to private vendors including private exchanges the majority of us were elected on the platform that included fighting the federal affordable care act commonly referred to as obamacare make no mistake colleagues a yes vote on this bill as currently drafted is a yes vote to support it senators caswell and gleason asked and were granted unanimous consent to make statements and moved that the statements be printed in the journal the motion prevailed senator caswell s statement in which senator booher concurred is as follows in reference to the bill before us there are a huge number of unknowns that none of us in this chamber are going to be able to control those unknowns involve supreme court decisions potentially these involve next year s election and the time frame which has been set up for implementation of the accountable care act in light of these unknowns the one thing that i believe is good in this bill is the ability to repeal things that are in it should the accountable care act go away i have seen firsthand in my time up here in lansing what happens when the federal government takes over anything in the state we had a situation years ago through a court case where the federal government took over some of our prisons it costs the taxpayers of this state tens of millions of dollars to comply with what the federal government decided was the proper way to run prisons we are currently involved in a children s lawsuit settlement again through the federal government a federal judge and it is costing us tens of millions of dollars to comply with the federal mandates i do not support putting this body in this state in the position of having the federal government come in and basically take over regulation of health care and also take over all of the administration of our medicaid program because i know what it will cost the citizens of this state based on previous experience for the things we can t control i believe we have put into place a mechanism to allow us to back out of this particular exchange in the future should that be what happens this is an ongoing process and this is simply a first step as with all legislation in lansing the first step obviously is not the final step there have been other ideas advanced which i believe are worthy of open and honest discussion in committees but i believe these ideas are very complicated and i believe it is imperative upon this body to put forth the best effort we can at this time turn this over to the house of representatives and allow the discussions to continue that is the reason we are acting today to move this forward i have things that i will be taking to the house of representatives that i believe make sense but i also believe that it is extremely important that we allow a full and coherent discussion of all these issues in committee as we move forward that is what we need to do so i will simply say this i will support the bill as we move forward but i don t particularly relish the idea of the federal government coming in and spending our money in any way it sees fit the political stage the discussion about whether or not this affordable care act will go forward is out of our hands that will be decided on a national stage so i urge my members in this chamber to support this bill we are controlling what we can and as we move forward we need to continue serious and thoughtful discussions senator gleason s statement is as follows i rise today to support this legislation that established the mihealth marketplace act i would like to begin by also thanking the chair this is an overwhelming responsibility to establish access to michigan citizens to probably the mostneeded resource that we have which is health care under this proposal 536000 uninsured michigan residents would gain access to health insurance two million fiftysix thousand michigan residents have preexisting conditions like cancer heart disease and diabetes the people who are suffering from these chronic illnesses can be denied health insurance all of us know someone or live with someone who is battling these illnesses today and we understand the enormous cost that these lifetime commitments cost our families people with preexisting conditions often require the most intensive and ongoing medical care it is absurd that insurance companies can deny health care coverage to those who need it the most to the ladies women are being discriminated against because they are women the socalled reproductive years standard allows insurance companies to charge women one and a half times the premium charged to a man i know madam chairperson that you would find this appalling placing a cap on lifetime benefits knowing full well about these enormous costs they also hurt michigan residents with ongoing medical issues these would allow insurance companies to continue to deny reasonable coverage for stockpiling costs placing the cap on lifetime benefits also hurts michigan residents because they lose the confidence because of the cost that they should go and take care of the condition they are facing many and we know them ourselves would shy away and hesitate to get the care required because of the enormous and burdensome cost of the health care finally this provision would allow 781000 young michigan adults to now remain on their parents insurance until they are 26 year old this is reasonable and it is necessary i believe the most compassionate thing that any of us can do as representatives of the citizens of the state of michigan is help the sick infirmed and disabled this legislation that was arduously worked on on behalf of the chair and all the interested from the insurance industry to the consumers themselves and i would like to thank the chair and those on the committee to allow a place at the table for consumers who will be set up on this panel i think that was a muchneeded addition and i thank the chair for allowing the consumers to have a voice this is much needed legislation if any of us were hurting or sick we would ask for help so today let s look upon this as the state of michigan asking us to help the sick this is the right thing to do and the time to do it is now 19 this bill as passed is a this bill as passed is a travesity i would expect a bill such as this from the dems but not from the republicans blue cross and blue shield have to take everybody and anybody with a preexisting condition this is just another govt bureaucracy to take more of our money and increase the size of govt  michigan health care exchange statements after passage the senate  