Political Quotes

“Yes. We talked about rural hospitals. I think, again, even if you are not on Medicaid, you have never signed up, you have never been in a low point in your life where you have needed a bridge, you have never had a child with a disability, you have just never touched the system, I guarantee you the hospitals that you depend on, the clinics that you depend on, the nursing homes that you depend on for your mom, your dad are dependent on Medicaid. I guarantee it. And what we are hearing from our rural hospitals is: Look, we are the only hospital in 3 hours where you can get care. If we go, where do our people go? Where do we tell them to go? If you are delivering a baby and you have to come off the Upper Peninsula into the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, there is just no way that we can function that way. So it is not just about, as you say, individuals--although, those stories are striking--it is about access to care for everybody. I was talking to a doctor from the Lansing Care Free Medical Clinic. It is completely Medicaid covered. It is the folks who are left out of the system. He will just close. We will have clinics just close. So I think we are talking about something that, again, comes to the heart of who we are as a community. I will also just say, I think it is important to put a warning label on it, and then I will turn it to you to maybe finish out. There is a lot of magic math going on right now on the other side of that.…”