Kristin and Warren Scaife fishtailed along the gravel road that winds south out of Grand Marais, on the rocky shores of Lake Superior. Kristin was in labor, but she couldn’t go to the closest hospital. Helen Newberry Joy Hospital didn’t have a birthing unit. A decade earlier, Kristin’s mother-in-law had found that out when she […]
Medicaid
Posted inMichigan Government
Henry Ford CEO says higher pay is only way to attract primary-care doctors
Nancy Schlichting, chief executive officer of the Henry Ford Health System, which handles $4.2 billion in revenues, says there are no easy answers in addressing the projected shortage of physicians in Michigan, particularly primary care physicians. Health care economics also likely will dictate the end of small, independent community hospitals, she said. Those hospitals will […]
Posted inPeter Luke: Eye on the Capitol
Hey Grandpa, how about a little help?
A 5-year-old child born to a mother who has exceeded 48 months on cash assistance was being reared in destitution before the state yanked $5,000 in annual welfare benefits. A 75-year-old residing in a nursing home, meanwhile, receives $80,000 in Medicaid-funded care. Not that future fiscal choices should favor the young at the expense of the old, […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest” — Confucius. * From a new AARP report: “According to Genworth, the median daily rate in Michigan for a nursing home in 2011 was $235 for a private […]
Posted inChildren & Families
Extra attention keeps frequent fliers from landing in ERs
A groundbreaking health care clinic in Grand Rapids expects to save millions of dollars a year by targeting a chronic cause of high medical costs: patients for whom the emergency room is a virtual revolving door. Based on early results, the director of the Spectrum Health System clinic projects savings of $12 million to $15 […]
Posted inMichigan Government
On Medicaid, nursing homes — and your home
There may not be a government program as misunderstood as Medicaid. The program’s name has become synonymous with government spending and with a certain connotation on “welfare” — good money going to people making bad decisions. The facts about Medicaid are far different. In large measure, Medicaid is actually a middle-class entitlement program. So why […]
Posted inMichigan Government
This man has power over 1 in 5 Mich. lives
Stephen Fitton has a corner office on the top floor of a state office building in Lansing, which is perhaps fitting for the person who directs the second-most expensive program in Michigan government To be clear, the corner office, like the man who inhabits it, is far from ostentatious. Fitton has plenty of windows — […]
Posted inChildren & Families
100,000 Michigan kids still lack health insurance
(Originally published Aug. 18, 2011) Imagine a city somewhere between the size of Lansing (114,000) and Sterling Heights (129,000). Imagine this city is populated only by children. Imagine every single one of these children lacks basic health insurance. That’s the reality in Michigan, says a health expert engaged in a campaign to get tens of […]