In a move that policy experts claim will harm Michiganders taking care of their elderly family members, Michigan Democrats have passed legislation that will classify home caregivers as public employees. This designation will allow unions to skim dues from Medicaid reimbursements for in-home care for seniors and the disabled.
Whitmer has said that she plans to sign the bills, Senate Bills 790 and 791, once they hit her desk.
In so doing, Whitmer and Democrats lawmakers rejected the advice of the AARP, a nonprofit organization advocating for people over the age of 50 that traditionally supports leftist policies and redistributions.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
MORE NEWS: Gretchen Whitmer claims she’s ‘keeping energy costs low’ but Michigan is 10th highest in U.S.
The bills would amend Michigan’s Home Help program, which would have the effect of making those caregivers into union members for the Service Employees International Union, taking dues payments out of their paychecks. Ultimately, caregivers will earn less in the program if the legislation passes.
In response to the bills, Paula Cunningham, AARP’s Michigan state director penned a letter to the Michigan Senate, requesting that the body address some concerns that she and her organization had with the legislation.
Namely, Cunningham worried that it would impede the individual’s “flexibility to direct their own care, including the choice to hire, pay, train, and manage their family caregiver” by effectively making all caregivers in the Home Help program into “public employees.”
Naturally, this reclassification of employees would mean that each family paying for such care would be charged an additional fee.
Go Ad-Free, Get Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial
She added that, like so much legislation coming out of Lansing, the legislature’s action will “unnecessarily complicate a process that is already challenging” for thousands of Michiganders.
The two bills passed on party lines in the House, 56-53, and the Senate, 20-18, last month.
Rep Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay Township, issued a statement last week opposing the Democrats’ scheme.
“The current process allows for flexibility so people can hire and manage a family caregiver that meet their exact needs – while still keeping critical oversight to ensure quality care,” DeBoyer said.
“These bills complicate a process that is already a stressful endeavor for many Michigan families who are looking out for their loved ones.. This is just bad policy.”
Jarrett Skorup, vice president for marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, wrote that the money raised for the SEIU won’t benefit the caregivers or the people for whom they care.
“Unionizing 37,000 home caregivers is expected to bring in nearly $14 million annually for the union,” Skorup wrote. “The money won’t be spent on bargaining or better working conditions — because the ’employer’ is typically the disabled family member living in the same home with the ’employees.'”
He added: “That frees up money to be spent on politics. And that’s the public employee union problem: Union spends money to elect politicians; politicians pass laws to give money and power to unions; unions spend more money to elect politicians…on and on it goes. And it’s the taxpayer who pays for it.”