After
an 8-hour session last Tuesday, the State Senate voted 20-18 to approve the S-9
substitute for House
Bill 4714, extending Medicaid coverage to some 470,000 Michiganders. The
body failed, however, to achieve immediate effect on the bill, falling two
votes shy on the normally procedural vote.
There
was speculation since last week whether or not the Senate would reconsider the
vote by which immediate effect failed; however, when Democratic Floor Leader
Senator Tupac Hunter (D-Detroit) moved to reconsider the vote this Tuesday, Lt.
Governor Brian Calley responded that the measure had already been transmitted
to the House of Representatives for a concurrence vote.
Without
immediate effect, the Medicaid reform will go into effect at the end of March
2014. Disagreements exist on the impact of the delay of the reform’s
implementation, with the Administration (specifically Department of Community
Health Director James Haveman) stating that each day after January 1, 2014 that
passes will cost the state $7 million – or a total of $630 million by the end
of March.
At
the end of the day, the Legislature moved forward without reconsidering the
vote and the House voted 75-32 to concur in the Senate’s changes. The vote in
the House was essentially the same as it was when the measure passed in June,
with only Representative Greg MacMaster (R-Kewadin) switching from a “yes” to a
“no.” Representatives Doug Geiss (D-Taylor) and Gail Haines (R-Lake Angelus)
were absent for the June vote; however, voted “yes” this week. Representatives
Thomas Stallworth II (D-Detroit) and Adam Zemke (D-Ann Arbor) voted “yes” in
June; however, were absent for this week’s vote.