© 2024 WNMU-FM
Upper Great Lakes News, Music, and Arts & Culture
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Governor at Marquette General Hospital to talk Medicaid expansion

MARQUETTE, MI--   Governor Rick Snyder stopped in Marquette Tuesday to promote Medicaid expansion in Michigan. 

Snyder says the plan would extend health coverage to nearly 500,000 residents who now rely on emergency room visits for their health care, which makes it expensive for the rest of the population.

“We’re paying for all those uninsured people already through higher insurance premiums,” he says.  “We’re already paying the bill, folks.  All this does is change who’s writing the checks.”

Snyder is asking residents to talk to their Senators about passing the Healthy Michigan plan—especially those lawmakers who oppose it.

“The question I’ve asked several Senators already is, that said they were ‘no’ on this, I said, ‘How are you going to feel if we don’t do Healthy Michigan and you have to walk into an emergency room?  And you’re going to see people in chairs there that you don’t know if all those people are going to survive.’”

The state House approved Medicaid expansion last month, but the Senate adjourned without taking action on the bill. 

Nicole was born near Detroit but has lived in the U.P. most of her life. She graduated from Marquette Senior High School and attended Michigan State and Northern Michigan Universities, graduating from NMU in 1993 with a degree in English.