Residents Tell Slavens to Protect Health Insurance

Michigan Rep. Dian Slavens, D-Canton, continues to seek public opinion on how voters want state lawmakers to spend tax dollars. She's planning a town hall meeting on education at the Canton Public Library on Sept. 26 to gather more comments.

Slavens got an earful during a meeting with constituents Monday evening at the . Most of the seven residents who met with her talked about schools, health care costs and general public safety. All of it pointed back to health care.

Terri Sims, a special education paraprofessional who works part-time at Salem High School, appealed to Slavens to do something about the rise in health care costs for public employees — a 20 percent increase.
Sims said she earns about $14,000 for working 10 month a year; her health care insurance will cost her $4,300 a year.

This year, along with increased payments for health insurance, she's facing at least one unpaid day off — called a furlough day — and there could be more, if school is closed by bad weather.

Slavens opposes taxing pensions

Slavens said the changes in school pay are directly related to Gov. Rick Snyder's drive to aid commerce by reducing business taxes. While Slavens said she supports reducing the business tax, she did not support Snyder's decision to use money in the state's school funding account to make up that difference. She said another state budget aid is taxing pensions but that the initial plan to tax all pensions has been revised to exempt people born in 1946 or before as well as single people over the age of 60 who receive $20,000 or less and married couples whose pensions total $40,000 or under, as well as those with military pensions or receiving checks via the federal Railroad Retirement Act.

Slavens said "$20,000 might sound like a lot of money, but it's not a lot to live on for one person for a year."

Hampton shifted the conversation, saying "I don't want repeals of the helmet law or of the no-fault insurance law."

Supporting helmet and no-fault insurance laws

Several people asked why the helmet law would be repealed. Slavens, who worked as a respiratory therapist for two decades, explained that some motorcyclists feel a state law requiring helmets is too invasive — but she had seen too many severe head injuries to support such a repeal.

Another Canton resident, Jim Hall, said he did not want to see either of the laws repealed, because it could lead to the loss of as many as 5,000 healthcare jobs. Hall, treasurer of the Brain Injury Association of America, said that eliminating no-fault insurance will shift costs back to the government, which can't afford the hospital bills for such traumatic brain injuries.

Overall, Slavens said the rising costs of healthcare are forcing some people to drop their insurance coverage. That, she said, costs everyone more in the end, when people land in emergency rooms and critical care wards for conditions that could have been prevented or minimized by regular doctor visits.

Slavens urged those present to email or call their other state lawmakers to deliver the same messages they gave her Monday.