West Michigan Health Officials met at Grand Valley State University this morning to discuss the state of Michigan’s health as well as what health care in 2017 might look like under a Donald Trump administration. The eight edition of Health Check: Analyzing Trends in West Michigan brought leaders from Spectrum, Mercy and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services together for a panel discussion to a large audience.
While healthcare jobs in West Michigan are expected to be at the highest they’ve been since 2005, Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon says Michigan still has a long way to go in terms of its health.
“Well we could be doing better as a state as far as our health goes, we still have a third of our population is overweight and a third is obese, which means we have over half our population that really has to think about their own health when it comes to weight and physical fitness,” Lyon said.
Data showed that in 2016 the percentage of people in Michigan without Health Care dropped from 9 to 5 percent, and 81% of people with insurance reported being satisfied with their current plans. So the big question on everyone’s mind at the Health Check on Friday-- what will happen if and when Donald Trump appeals Obama Care?
“I think the biggest thing is the uncertainty of what’s going to happen with the health insurance exchanges in this state which covers more than 300,000 people, and the healthy Michigan plan which provides coverage to over 600,000 people in this state. There are votes happening at the Federal level, beginning today, and we are going to be watching those closely to make sure that we’re doing everything we can, to provide consistent, efficient and effective health care for those in Michigan.”
Donald Trump will take office January 20th. On Thursday House Speaker Paul Ryan from Wisconsin said the initial repeal and replace healthcare legislation will be the number one priority in the new administration’s health care policy.
