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Two issues with Michigan budget

EDITOR:

This is a response to the article by News Editor Jim Anderson, “Dickinson takes issue with state budget,” in the May 23 Daily News. Every person in the Upper Peninsula should be aware these people are talking about two entirely different parts of legislation and two different parts of the state budget.

The first resolution seeking to protect the MI Choice Waiver Program and UPCAP comes under the Older Michiganians Act and comes under the State Laws that cover the Act and is directed at seniors over age 60. This starts with 15 commissioners — five Republican, five Democrat and five Independent — who are appointed by the governor with the Legislature who oversee and distribute the millions of dollars to the 16 AAA units throughout Michigan who then distribute the millions they receive to their designated seniors for their programs. The Upper Peninsula Commission for Area Progress, or UPCAP, is the designated AAA that covers all 15 Upper Peninsula counties.

The MI Choice Waiver Program is only a small part of what UPCAP attempts to do. What is the bill that is making the privatization possible? Is this already a done deal? Can we do anything to change the language in the bill to stop the Medicaid dollars from going into the pockets of the for-profit companies?

Moving on to the Michigan Public Mental Health System. There are 10 Prepaid Inpatient Health Plans overseeing 46 Community Mental Health centers in Michigan. NorthCare Network Inc. is the PIHP that covers the five CMH in the U.P. They are Northpointe, Pathways, Hiawatha, Gogebic and Copper Country. In a nutshell, what some legislators in Lansing are trying to do is take the $2.3 billion plus Medicaid dollars away and give it to for-profits to run.

From now to Friday, every person in the U.P. should contact your House and Senate members urging them to make sensible changes to the final 298 boilerplate language. Tell Tom Casperson, Scott Dianda and Beau LaFave to stop this privatization of Medicaid dollars and allow the Upper Peninsula to operate their Community Health as they have with NorthCare Network Inc. handling the Medicaid dollars.

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