Wait. What???

With Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act poised to free nearly half a million Michiganders from having to get their healthcare from emergency rooms and save the state $10 million in the first ten years, our Governor, Rick Snyder, appears to be wavering because of ‘capacity’ issues. This is despite a report that came out this month indicating that Michigan doctors are ready, willing and able to take on the influx of uninsured patients.

So, wait, what? We should just let them keep going to emergency rooms for their healthcare?

Via Michigan Radio:

“I want to make sure we have access and high quality care if we’re to look into something like that, and say, ‘What’s the net cost to all of us?’” Snyder also says he wants to make sure health care providers can accommodate adding hundreds of thousands of people to the program. “The key issue on the Medicaid expansion that I want to do some research on, among others, is do we have enough capacity to put essentially 400,000 more people into a medical home model with a primary care environment, as opposed to having them simply go to an ER?” Snyder also says he wants to make sure health care providers can accommodate adding hundreds of thousands of people to the program.

Pardon me for bringing this up but, isn’t the correct question to be asking, “If our system isn’t capable of handling an influx of new, uninsured patients, what do we need to do to fix that?” rather than simply punting on the issue?

Join us in encouraging Gov. Snyder to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and stop the subsidizing of the uninsured by the Middle Class by signing our petition. When you look at this tremendous deal on its merits, it’s nothing less than a win-win-win for everyone. In fact, the only people who are against it are partisan ideologues that are simply trying to score points against President Obama. While there are many issues in our state right now (changing how electoral votes are distributed, right to work, the War on Women, etc.), opposing Medicaid expansion is unique in that it is pure politics at the expense of everyone who is, simply put, not rich.

C’mon, Governor Snyder, DO THE RIGHT THING.

[CC Image credit: SaMi | Wikimedia Commons]