Sign Our Petition

Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey recently introduced two new bills – Senate Bills 597 & 598, which attempt to reboot the failed section 298 effort from a few years ago. This legislation would privatize all Medicaid mental health services by giving full financial control and oversight / decision making to for-profit insurance companies.

The bills are being falsely portrayed as improving the state’s public mental health system. However, they do not improve the system nor its service to Michiganders but, instead, deeply damage the state’s Community Mental Health services, their financing and service delivery systems, and harm the 320k+ Michiganders served by this system.

Senator Shirkey’s bills also give our state’s money and decision-making to out-of-state insurance companies. This legislation will allow our local mental health care decisions to be made in corporate board rooms in states like, Missouri, California, Minnesota, Arizona and Indiana.

We MUST broaden the conversation beyond Medicaid. Mental illness and addiction impact millions of individuals and families across the state of Michigan regardless of their insurance. Sign our petition to let Senator Shirkey know these bills are not the answer.