Healthy Michigan Plan: It’s working, but we’ve got to keep it up!

By Rick Murdock

All of us at the Michigan Association of Health Plans were strong supporters of Gov. Rick Snyder’s Healthy Michigan Plan, providing health insurance to low-income working men and women.

So we have been pleased to see people signing up briskly – 237,000 since April 1, when enrollment opened. We’re confident that the vast majority of those had no insurance before they signed up, meaning they probably used emergency rooms for their day-to-day health care, driving up the cost of health care for everyone.

Those enrollees will soon be added as members of Michigan’s managed Medicaid health plans, who are MAHP members, and will join other Medicaid beneficiaries at our state’s high quality health insurance providers.

But we have a lot of work to do. The state’s budget is predicated on having an average of 315,000 persons enrolled each month. To hit that number, we will need to hit 400,000 enrolled by the end of the year.

Gov. Rick Snyder and business leaders are working together to reach these persons where they work, providing businesses with videos, signup information and other incentives to join the Healthy Michigan Plan. If you know someone who might be eligible, go here for more information.