What Will You Be Doing This Spring Break?
Over the next two weeks, Michigan’s Legislature is on spring break. Sure, many legislators may be, literally, taking a break with their families but this also provides a great opportunity to connect with your legislators in your community – in their districts. And boy, is there a lot to talk about.
Last week, the Michigan House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittees approved most of their budgets for fiscal year 2014 (FY2014), which begins October 1 of this year and goes through September 30th of 2014. The subcommittees made many changes from the Governor’s proposed budget for FY2014 – particularly in the Community Health budget – and many will continue to be topics of debate as the budget process continues. We know that good health is critical to education and life success, and in fact, the Michigan Department of Education – Office of Great Start agrees as demonstrated by their first objective to ensure that all children are born healthy. With children of color disproportionately challenged by access to consistent, high quality health care, changes made to the Community Health budget will have the greatest impact on them.
House changes that will affect child and family health disparities include the following.
- Medicaid Expansion: The House Appropriations Subcommittee for Community Health did not include the Governor’s proposed Medicaid Expansion in their budget proposal. This expansion would’ve insured more than 320,000 adults who are living at 133 percent of the federal poverty level or below (that’s an annual income of $25,975 for a family of three), and we know that African American and Latino Michiganders are more likely to be uninsured than their White counterparts. As a result, Medicaid expansion is important for Michigan children of color as we know that low-income adults are often parents or caregivers of young children and that many uninsured young adults are still working to complete their high school credentials.
- Infant Mortality Reduction: The House Subcommittee eliminated the Governor’s proposed $2.5 million to support the state’s Infant Mortality Reduction Plan. In a state where African American babies are three times more likely to die before their first birthday than White babies, this elimination of funding is unacceptable.
- Healthy Kids Dental Program: The House Subcommittee rejected the Governor’s proposal to expand the Healthy Kids Dental program to an additional 70,500 children and youth in Ingham, Ottawa and Washtenaw counties. This program increases provider reimbursement rates, encourages provider participation and helps more children receive the high quality dental care they need. Dental disease is the most common chronic illness for children – more so than asthma or hay fever – and disproportionately affects children of color and children from low-income families who lack access to sufficient dental care.
- Mental Health Innovations: The House Subcommittee rejected the Governor’s proposed $5 million to support his new Mental Health Innovations, which would’ve supported comprehensive home-based mental health services for children, a pilot high intensity care management team for youth with complex behavior disorders, and mental health “first aid” training to recognize mental health problems in youth and connecting them to professional help. These efforts could assist in ensuring that children – particularly children of color – who struggle with mental health issues get appropriate intervention services rather than being mislabeled as youth with bad behavior at-risk of school suspension.
This spring break provides opportunities to connect with legislators on these important health programs that reduce disparities and ensure that children are on-track to succeed in school and life. Though the House Subcommittee made these inequitable changes to the Department of Community Health budget, the full House Appropriations Committee has yet to adopt these recommendations. Additionally, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Community Health has yet to finalize their budget for FY2014 and is expected to do so shortly after the break. Now is the time to talk to your legislators in both the House and Senate about these important health programs and what they mean to your children and your community.
-Mina Hong