Legislative Update
From Brad Comment
The Michigan Legislature has been on summer break since the
4th of July. However, the leadership in the House, Senate and
Governor’s office has been meeting regularly to determine
exactly how much revenue they will have to balance their budget.
As you can imagine, all eyes have been on the budget since they
need to have a budget in place for October 1st or else they face
another state shutdown. We expect the month of September to be
fast and feverish as the legislature races against the clock to
balance the budget.
AST has been working with Surgical Technologists from
Kalamazoo to create a grassroots effort targeting Senator
George, the Senate Health Policy Chair. In order for our
legislation to succeed we need the Chair to support our
initiative. If you are a Surgical Technologist and work with Dr.
George, anesthesiologist, please notify Cathy Sparkman from AST.
We are also working with the Michigan Chapter of the American
College of Surgeons to gain their support. Although the National
Chapter supports our legislation we need to get the Michigan
Chapter’s support. We are fortunate to have Dr. Lena Napolitano,
M.D., from the University of Michigan Hospital, support our
initiative. As you may recall, Dr. Napolitano was a spokesperson
at the AST National Conference.
The Legislature is going to start meeting regularly this fall
so please contact your legislator immediately and ask them to
support HB 4834, sponsored by Representative Marie Donigan. You
may go to the MI-AST website for information on the legislation
such as talking points, and a link will be provided that will
give you a draft letter that can be sent from you to your
Legislator.
As you recall our mock surgery was a success and we created a
buzz with our legislators. Now is the time to make contact with
them, explain to them the importance of the legislation, patient
safety is our concern so let’s make it the legislature’s concern
too.
We need your help to get this done!
Related Links to contact your Michigan Legislators regarding
HB 4834 can be found at
http://capwiz.com/ast/home/
Talking Points
Is a compressed folder containing a Word document that you can edit, save to your computer and print as required.
There is also a plain text version that will open in Notepad.
The latter format is advised for pasting into web forms. Once
Notepad is open check "Word Wrap" under the "Format" menu so
that you can see it easily and adjust the window size if you
wish. Edit the top section and remove the non-relevant sentence.
Do not hit the enter key unless you want to start a new
paragraph as the web form will add them where required and it'll
look silly if have too many (Webmaster - trust me on this). As a
matter of fact this is a good general rule even in Word since
paragraph spacing should be adjusted by the paragraph spacing
controls.
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Related Bio
Info
Brad Comment,
Vice-President of Governmental Relations for
Kindsvatter & Associates. He joined the firm in
2008 after years of service as a staff member in
the Michigan Legislature and as a Legislative
Coordinator for the Michigan Association of
Counties.
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 Cathy Sparkman, JD, is
AST’s Director of Government Affairs. Cathy’s
knowledge of health care issues and legislative
efforts is outstanding. She is a graduate of the
University Of Texas School Of Law, and has been
a private and corporate attorney for more than
30 years. |
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 Senator Tom George, who
is the Chair of the Senate Health Committee, is
a practicing Anesthesiologist in the Kalamazoo
area. He represents the 20th District of the
Michigan Senate. The 20th Senate District
includes all of Kalamazoo County and Antwerp and
Paw Paw Townships in Van Buren County. He needs
to hear from his constituents.
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