Feedback: In health care reform, don’t ignore mental health needs

Free Press readers | Michigan

As our legislators continue to discuss the merits of various health care initiatives and the resulting impact on people’s lives, the one in five Americans who suffer a diagnosable mental illness cannot be ignored.

The initial Better Care Reconciliation Act would reduce Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion through the reduction of federal funding over a decade. As Medicaid is the largest payer of mental health services in the nation, passage of this act could leave millions without coverage for critical mental health services.

Provisions in the act could also cripple Michigan’s ability to maintain even the current limited level of services for adults who require treatment for mental illness.

Left untreated, mental illness can devastate those affected, as well as their loved ones. Clearly, treatment services for people with mental illness must not be underfunded or eliminated altogether. On the contrary, improved accessibility to quality and affordable mental health care for every citizen must be elevated as a priority.

The nation needs a health care act that offers adequate treatment for this illness that impacts individuals, families, employers and communities.

Ben Robinson

President, Rose Hill Center

Holly

How will we pay for connected roads?

Just like the distracted driving that followed cell phones (ready or not, no we were not!) I have to chuckle at Sunday's headlines about driverless cars. The infrastructure required to make autonomous vehicles a reality is billions. We can not even keep up with potholes! You must be kidding, right?

Janice Gray

St. Clair Shores

Don’t hunt Michigan’s songbirds

I am writing regarding the article, “Despite Pushback, Hunters Take Aim at Songbirds.” While Detroit Audubon is not anti-hunting and has supported measures to control mute swan populations, we are strongly opposed to hunting of mourning doves, sandhill cranes and predator species like gray wolves. We were part of a coalition that fought mourning dove hunting with a successful petition drive and as the article noted, that the referendum not only passed 61-39%, but won in every Michigan county. At the time, we warned that if mourning dove hunting was approved, sandhill cranes would be next, which hunting groups denied. Now the truth comes out.

There are many reasons to not hunt mourning doves — they don’t provide much food, lead shot would poison other birds, they look too much like the declining American Kestrel, thus it would put that species in danger, to name a few. Nick Green of the Michigan United Conservation Clubs asserts that if we do not allow hunting, sandhill cranes would overpopulate. Does he propose hunting every species that has a large population? There are other ways to manage wildlife than hunting. Detroit Audubon supports hunting but believes there are more than enough species to hunt in Michigan.

James N. Bull

President, Detroit Audobon