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Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Michigan Senate passes ‘Momnibus' legislative package on final day of Black Maternal Health Week
State Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor) speaks on the Senate floor in support of the "Momnibus" package of bills on April 17, 2025. | Screenshot A 10-bill package to reduce racial inequities in maternal mortality in Michigan passed through the Michigan Senate Thursday, with supporters hoping that the second time will be the charm to getting the so-called 'momnibus' signed into law. The legislation, which passed with bipartisan support, had received a similar reception when it was originally introduced in April 2024, but then failed to make it across the finish line after Republican lawmakers boycotted the lame duck session in December in protest to minimum and tipped wage reforms not being placed for a vote. The main sponsor of the package is Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor), who said the legislation incorporates a variety of approaches to improve prenatal and perinatal health outcomes in Michigan. 'By dismantling systemic barriers that disproportionately impact Black and brown birthing people, the Michigan Momnibus brings us one step closer to achieving equity and justice and reproductive and obstetric care,' Geiss told her colleagues prior to the vote. 'It is a multifaceted bill package that works to improve integrity and accountability in Michigan's maternal health care system, ensuring that every family has an equitable opportunity to have a healthy, joyful pregnancy, birthing, and postpartum experience that truly centers their needs.' The Momnibus legislative package includes; Senate Bill 29 mandates the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to compile annual data on racial and ethnic disparities in health care, as well as review statewide maternal deaths in order to complete a report to the legislature starting in 2026 and then continuing every three years. The department would also have to come up with a statewide plan to reduce such ethnic and racial disparities in health care. Senate Bill 30 would enact the 'Biased and Unjust Care Reporting Act' which requires the state health department to take and analyze reports of unfair treatment by pregnant or postpartum individuals who say they received improper medical care that was not culturally informed or treatment that caused them harm. The department would have to create a reporting tool to accept such complaints while also maintaining the patients' privacy. Senate Bill 31 bars hospital leadership from discriminating against a patient on the basis of their pregnancy or lactating status and would require a health facility to stabilize a patient or resident going through labor before ceasing care for the patient upon the patient's refusal or denial of care. The facility would have to author a policy on patient rights and adhere to the policy. Senate Bill 32 requires insurance companies offering medical malpractice insurance policies to provide the Department of Insurance and Financial Services with a review of the policies related to perinatal care on an annual basis. Senate Bill 33 clarifies that a patient's pregnancy would not preclude a designated patient advocate from making life-sustaining treatment decisions for the patient. Senate Bill 34 clarifies Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to bar discrimination on the basis of sex, including pregnancy and lactation status. Senate Bill 36 amends the public health code to include eligible midwives who attended midwifery programs to participate in the state health department's Michigan Essential Health Provider Repayment program. Senate Bill 37 requires insurance companies that cover gynecological and pregnancy services to cover such services whether they be in a hospital or a patient's home, by a qualified physician or nurse midwife or midwife. Senate Bill 38 and Senate Bill 39 amends the Social Welfare Act to require the Healthy Michigan Plan to cover ultrasound procedures and fetal nonstress tests in offsite locations and permit Medicaid eligible individuals to be able to receive perinatal and gynecologic care under the Healthy Michigan Plan under certain circumstances. Statistics have long corroborated disparities in maternal outcomes for women of color, with maternal mortality rates for Black women in the U.S. nearly 3.5 times the rate for non-Hispanic white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additionally, the CDC says the rate of preterm birth among Black women is 12.34%, or about 1.5 times higher than the rate of preterm birth among white or Hispanic women, which stands at 7.64% and 8.72% respectively. A lack of access to quality health care and educational resources are some of the reasons for the inequity, and are among the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes. Known as the social determinants of health, the CDC says those factors include the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, worship, and age. 'Social determinants of health prevent many people from racial and ethnic minority groups from having fair opportunities for economic, physical, and emotional health,' said the CDC. Geiss noted that the passage of the bills through the Senate came on the final day of Black Maternal Health Week. 'This has been a long road for the Michigan Momnibus, but by keeping the Momnibus moving, we can affirm a commitment to ensuring that healthy pregnancies and equitable care must transcend partisan racial, class, and economic divides, as every family deserves access to the care they need to thrive,' said Geiss. The legislation was immediately referred to the Michigan House for consideration, where it was assigned to the Health Policy Committee. Michigan Advance reporter Anna Liz Nichols contributed to this story.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Reintroduced ‘momnibus' maternal health care bill package clears first stop in Michigan Senate
(L-R) State Sens. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit), Mary Cavanagh (D-Redford Twp.), Erika Geiss (D-Taylor), and Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) testify to the Senate Housing and Human Services Committee in support of the 'momnibus' package of bills to reduce racial inequities in maternal mortality in Michigan. March 18, 2025. Screenshot A 'momnibus' bill package aimed to reduce racial inequities in maternal mortality in Michigan cleared the Michigan Senate Housing and Human Services Committee Tuesday with bipartisan support. Policies in the package were widely supported last legislative session by the partisanly split Michigan Senate, Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor) noted to lawmakers Tuesday, but the bills became a 'lame duck casualty of the House' as Republican lawmakers boycotted session in December in protest to minimum and tipped wage reforms not being placed for a vote. But the legislation is worth taking up again, Tamika Jackson, a Community Organizer for Mothering Justice told lawmakers Tuesday. Mothering Justice, a Detroit-based group dedicated to advocating for mothers of color, addressing economic and health care inequities, has been vocally supportive of policies aimed to help Michigan moms. Rather than listen to her when she said she couldn't breathe, Jackson said her anesthesiologist ignored her during labor as a mistake with her epidural started to shut down her organs. 'This medical professional was willing to let me die before she would admit that I needed care, and essentially, I did. I coded. I was put on life support. I had to have an emergency C-section, and then I was revived with epinephrine,' Jackson said recalling everything she missed in the birth of her baby. She was not the first person to hold her child and she had difficulty breastfeeding because of the experience, Jackson said and she lives with the trauma of begging for help and being refused. Black women maternal mortality rates are three times higher than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This gap exists for an assortment of reasons including accessibility to quality care and educational information on healthy pregnancies, but also chronic dismissal to the pain and needs of Black women. In order to combat inequities, Senate Bill 29 would mandate the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to compile annual data on racial and ethnic disparities in health care, as well as review statewide maternal deaths in order to complete a report to the legislature to offer insight on gaps in maternal health care starting in 2026 and then continuing every three years. The department would also have to come up with a statewide plan to reduce such ethnic and racial disparities in health care. Senate Bill 30 similarly would require the state health department to take and analyze reports of unfair treatment by pregnant or postpartum individuals who say they received improper medical care that was not culturally informed or treatment that caused them harm. The department would have to create a reporting tool to accept such complaints while also maintaining the patients' privacy. Senate Bill 31 would bar leadership of a hospital from discriminating against a patient on the basis of their pregnancy or lactating status and would require a health facility to stabilize a patient or resident going through labor before ceasing care for the patient upon the patient's refusal or denial of care. The facility would have to author a policy on patient rights and adhere to the policy. Senate Bill 34 would clarify Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act barring discrimination on the basis of 'sex' including pregnancy and lactation status. Senate advances 'Momnibus' bills aimed at addressing racial disparities in maternal health Senate Bill 32 would require insurance companies offering medical malpractice insurance policies to provide the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) with a review of the policies related to perinatal care on an annual basis. Senate Bill 33 would clarify that a patient's pregnancy would not preclude a designated patient advocate from making life-sustaining treatment decisions for the patient. Due to historic worse outcomes in hospitals, many women of color are opting for out of hospital options for delivery, including using midwives. Michigan has not yet tapped the positives to society that midwives offer, said Leseliey Welch, co-founder of Birth Detroit, a network for Black midwives. Welch notes that the World Health Organization has urged expansions in midwifery across the globe as a means to provide less costly means to care through highly trained professionals who could meaningfully lower maternal and newborn deaths by expanding access to care. 'I continue to marvel at the fact that this is currently one of the only areas of health care where policy makers… across some states continue to ignore a whole body of evidence about how it will improve the health in our communities,' Welch said. 'Michigan needs more midwives.' In order to increase the number of midwives, Senate Bill 36 would amend the public health code to include eligible midwives who attended midwifery programs to participate in the state health department's Michigan Essential Health Provider Repayment program. Senate Bill 37 would require insurance companies that cover gynecological and pregnancy services to cover such services whether they be in a hospital or a patient's home, by a qualified physician or nurse midwife or midwife. Senate Bill 38 and Senate Bill 39 would amend the Social Welfare Act to require the Healthy Michigan Plan to cover ultrasound procedures and fetal nonstress tests in offsite locations and permit Medicaid eligible individuals to be able to receive perinatal and gynecologic care under the Healthy Michigan Plan under certain circumstances. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Advocates urge Michigan Legislature not to roll back paid sick leave law
State Senators Erika Geiss (D-Taylor) and Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), address a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King On Wednesday, Mothering Justice hosted a press conference and rally on the Michigan State Capitol steps denouncing proposed cuts to the Earned Sick Time Act. With temperatures in the 30s and the sun struggling to peek out from behind the clouds, the nearly 100 supporters in attendance were focused on keeping intact a Michigan Supreme Court decision last summer that the then-GOP-controlled Legislature acted unconstitutionally in 2018 when it adopted and then gutted citizen-led ballot initiatives to increase Michigan's minimum wage and create sick leave requirements for employers. 'As a mom and of a disabled child and son, I know what it is like to not have a single paid sick time, and I know what it's like for families like mine to care for children with disabilities,' said Aisha Wells, deputy director of organizing at Mothering Justice. 'The flexibility to take time off for medical emergencies is not a luxury. It is a necessity for our children's survival.' Michigan business owners, workers and lawmakers rally to save tipped wages The court's ruling set a Feb. 21 deadline to implement the ballot initiative reforms including increasing the state's minimum wage to $15 by the start of 2028 and eventually eliminating the tipped minimum wage by 2030 so that all workers, regardless of classification, earned a uniform minimum wage. It would also require employers with fewer than 10 employees to offer up to 40 hours of paid sick leave and 32 hours of unpaid leave while businesses with 10 or more employees must offer a full 72 hours of paid sick leave. Since that decision, however, hundreds of business owners and service industry workers have lobbied lawmakers to preserve the tipped wage credit and reverse the sick leave changes before they take effect. House Bills 4001 and 4002, which passed the GOP-led House last week, would undo much of what is set to go into effect on Feb. 21, when the minimum wage will increase to $12.48 an hour, increasing in phases to $14.97 by 2028. However, the Republican-sponsored legislation would keep the tipped wage at 38% of the state minimum wage, while delaying by almost a year the proposed increases to the minimum wage, so that instead of reaching $14.97 by Feb. 21, 2028, it would increase to $15 at the start of 2029. Additionally, the wage rate for employees under 18 would drop from 85% to 75% of the minimum wage. As for paid sick leave, the proposed legislation would exempt employers with 50 employees or less from the new requirements, while eliminating language that would permit employees to take civil action if their employer violates the law. 'Almost 1.5 million workers in Michigan do not have access to a single day, but guess who does have sick time? Lawmakers. Guess who else has sick time? Corporations. But who doesn't have sick time is almost 1.5 million Michigan families,' said Wells. 'Sick time is a win-win solution. Beyond being a worker friendly policy, it improves workforce productivity, reduces turnover, and creates stronger community ties for businesses. We need to fight back.' Mothering Justice called on Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids), Senate Majority Floor Leader Sam Singh (D-East Lansing) and fellow Democratic Sens. Kevin Hertel (D-Saint Clair Shores), and Darrin Camilleri (D-Brownstown Twp.), to heed their constituents' concerns and not water down the scheduled increases. Hertel, Camilleri, and Singh are the sponsors of legislation that would essentially try to split the difference between the scheduled changes and the GOP legislation. Together, Senate Bills 6, 7, and 8, would accelerate the increase of Michigan's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2027, while keeping the tipped credit at 38% for the remainder of 2025, then gradually increasing and capping it at 60% over 10 years. They would also allow workers to file anonymous complaints against employers, while prohibiting the misclassification of workers as 'independent contractors,' preventing a wage being paid that is lower than the legal minimum. Senate Bill 15 would raise the definition of a small business from less than 10 employees to less than 25 employees. Those small businesses would then have to provide employees with 40 hours of paid sick leave and 30 hours of unpaid sick leave at the beginning of the year, instead of the 40 hours of paid leave and 32 hours of unpaid leave accrued through the year. It would also provide employers the option to provide workers a minimum of 72 hours of paid earned sick time at the beginning of a year. All four Democratic bills have been referred to either the Senate Labor Committee or the Committee on Regulatory Affairs, where no dates have been set to take testimony and potentially pass them on to the full Senate for a vote. State Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), who co-sponsored two of the bills, spoke at the rally, and said the need for the earned sick time reforms was long past due, not just for the benefit of workers, but also employers. 'It's so, so clear that people should not have to make that choice between taking care of themselves, taking care of a loved one, or being able to pay their rent, and so making sure that people have earned paid sick time is so important, not just for families and not just for workers, but also we know that from the states and cities that already have had earned paid sick time, that actually this is a policy that's good for business as well,' said Chang. 'When we think about worker productivity, being present on the job, not having to retrain workers over and over, this is actually something that is good for business.' State Sen. Erika Geiss (D-Taylor) criticized the last-minute wrangling in the Legislature. 'The Supreme Court of Michigan gave the business community, the Legislature, six months to figure out how to implement what should have happened back in 2018 the right way,' she said. 'The hard work of the people who you've all heard from, many of the folks are out there, this is a very important initiative. This is important to a lot of those who stand fighting for our families, when you need to take that time to care.' Aisha Wells, deputy director of organizing at Mothering Justice, addresses a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King A supporter of increases in earned sick time rallies at the Michigan Capitol. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King A supporter of increases in earned sick time rallies at the Michigan Capitol. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Dr. Bridget Leanord addresses a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Sarah Freudenberg, pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran in Livonia, addresses a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Karrington Kelsey addresses a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Supporters of increases in earned sick time rally on the Michigan Capitol steps. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Kelly Miller, volunteer coordinator at Focus Hope, addresses a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Supporters of increases in earned sick time rally on the Michigan Capitol steps. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Chris White, director of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan, addresses a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Supporters of increases in earned sick time rally on the Michigan Capitol steps. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King State Senators Erika Geiss (D-Taylor) and Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), address a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Monique Stanton, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy, addresses a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King La Donna Spight addresses a rally on Michigan Capitol steps supporting increases in earned sick time. Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Jon King Another speaker at Wednesday's rally was Monique Stanton, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy. She told the Michigan Advance afterward that the Michigan Supreme Court decision should stand as is. 'The legislation that was drafted with the ballot initiative in 2018 is the right legislation, and that's what we want to see enacted,' said Stanton. 'Michiganders are struggling. They're struggling with all kinds of things right now and people need protections to be able to take care of themselves and their families, and this is not the time to make these kinds of cuts.' Chris White is the director of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan, which filed the lawsuit that led to the Michigan Supreme Court decision. He told the Advance that changing the measures now is a slap in the face of the democratic process. 'What does it say, for a group of individuals that petitioned in 2018 and then went to court and did everything the right way, only to have it set back? That's not good policy,' he said. 'The bills that they have introduced sets back wages at a time when the cost of eggs is going up, the cost of gas is going up. If the cost of living goes up, the wages must increase. That's just common sense at that point.' White pointed to recent polling that shows a majority of Michiganders, including Republicans, support the wage and sick time changes. 'Fifty-one percent of Republicans support this,' said White, referencing a poll conducted by Progress Michigan. 'So we're concerned that the [Republican Party] is going up against what they even support. 80% of Democrats support this. So this is bipartisan support for the changes and this is bipartisan support for a stronger workforce, a stronger Michigan. So, we're not gonna stand here and let rumors, astroturf campaigns, and any of that get in the way of the change that is coming and this change is for all Michigan residents, and this change will make our state a stronger state.' As advocates gathered in front of the Capitol, Republicans in the Michigan Senate were also discussing the issue, angry that majority Democrats had yet to advance the House legislation for a vote. 'This should have been addressed long ago, and it's been incredibly frustrating to watch this chamber do nothing, even though the jobs of thousands of Michigan workers are on the line,' said state Sen. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell) during the Senate session. 'We are running out of time. Workers, particularly servers in the restaurant industry and small businesses, are begging we take action to save their jobs. I call on the Senate to approve House Bills 4001 and 4002, as soon as possible. These bills preserve the tip credit sustainably, continue to raise the minimum wage and continue to provide common sense and workable earned sick time.' Justin Winslow, president and CEO of the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, said the group expects Michigan lawmakers to take action to prevent what they believe will result in an economic calamity for restaurants and other eateries. 'We don't need to repeat the mistakes of other regions. Washington, D.C., is already seeking to reverse course on tip credit elimination after losing 4,000 restaurant jobs. Michigan has the opportunity to learn from their costly mistake and act before we inflict the same damage on our own hospitality industry. The House has shown leadership by passing HB 4001 — now the Senate must do the same before it's too late,' said Winslow. Advance reporter Kyle Davidson contributed to this story. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
