Following
last week’s inaction by the Senate Government Operations Committee on
legislation to allow McLaren Health Care to erect a new facility, Senate
Majority Leader Randy Richardville is reportedly considering discharging the
bill from Committee to the Senate floor. McLaren has been working for at least
two years to get permission to build a new facility near Clarkston and move
approximately 200 beds from the existing Pontiac location.
The
measure wasn’t moved from the Committee last week when it appeared the “yes”
votes did not exist on the Committee to do so, a fact that has evidently not
changed this week – leaving discharge as the only option.
After
the Certificate of Need (CON) Commission rejected McLaren’s proposal in 2012,
they have been pushing the Legislature to allow for the facility. The move is
opposed by many representing a cross-section of interest groups, business,
labor, and others, including the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Teamsters, Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, the Economic
Alliance for Michigan, and more.
Competing
hospitals such as Sparrow, Beaumont, Trinity Health, Ascension Health, and
others also oppose the effort.