Doctor and lawmaker says he has the prescription for what ails the state
Tom George in the Saginaw News
By Barrie Barber, The Saginaw News
State Sen. Tom George believes he has the prescription for what ails Michigan.
The anesthesiologist running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination says expenditures for state health care have consumed ever-larger amounts of tax dollars, taking money from infrastructure, education and other priorities.
“If Michigan is going to get its act together, we must constrain health care spending,” said the Texas Township Republican from Kalamazoo County.
George appeared Friday at a Saginaw Valley State University to attend a Board of Fellows legislative breakfast and a Senate Higher Education Subcommittee on Appropriations hearing.
In an interview with The Saginaw News, the senator criticized the state for raising business taxes while it struggles to attract employers. George called on voters to say yes to a state constitutional convention on the ballot this fall to reform government for “the age of the Internet, not the atomic age.” Michigan last had a convention in 1963.
At a convention, George said he would favor a part-time Legislature with less pay and benefits, a review of ways local governments, agencies and school districts might consolidate or share resources, and budget reform that requires the House, Senate and the governor’s office to present a balanced budget.
George said Medicaid costs have reached 30 percent under Democratic Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm’s administration, while education and local revenue sharing have seen cuts.
The state hasn’t placed enough emphasis on preventive medicine and personal responsibility to keep recipients and employees healthy and lower costs, he said.
“We’re in a state where unions bargain for the right to smoke on the assembly line, then they bargain for a card to cover all their ailments,” he said. “Great benefits cover everything, and it can’t work that way.
“Everybody else will say we need to bring jobs to Michigan. True, but what’s government’s role in bringing jobs? It’s creating an environment that’s conducive to job growth: Investing in education, fixing the infrastructure and our government is crippled now because those resources have been diverted to pay for health care.”
The state should follow the lead of many businesses and require employees and Medicaid recipients to practice preventive health measures, he said.
He suggested healthy adult Medicaid recipients sign agreements “so they understand what government expects of them in return for their care” under a tiered health benefit plan. “The social contract is not a real contract because they’re not asked to do anything. You just get a card.”
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, Republican Attorney General Mike Cox, U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Holland and Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder also are competing for the Republican nomination in the Aug. 3 primary.
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem Township, are the declared candidates thus far for the Democratic nomination.
Posted: 2/20/2010