Northern Michigan healthcare access threatened by proposed state Medicaid cuts

LANSING — With federal funding cuts already on the horizon, Northern Michigan’s largest hospital systems are warning that access to rural healthcare would suffer under the state House’s funding proposal .

“The kinds of decisions we are looking at and the service line reductions that we’re looking at because of federal changes — we might have to accelerate some of those decisions,” said Deidra Wilson, vice president of government relations for McLaren Health Care.

Northern Michigan counties have an average Medicaid enrollment of 25%, close to the state’s level.

Counties like Clare, Lake and Wexford have enrollment rates closer to 33%, while Charlevoix, Emmet and Grand Traverse have less than 20% of residents enrolled.

“From a standpoint of who gets impacted the hardest and first, if t