Michigan receives millions to improve access to care

Since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was enacted, the state of Michigan has received $82.5 million in grants to prepare its local healthcare industry for the expected increase in patient population and demands in the upcoming years.

Part of the PPACA provisions include expanding health insurance coverage to a significant number of Americans, creating a demand for services nationwide. To help ensure enough healthcare providers and health centers are available to meet these demands, states are accepting federal grants to build up a healthcare workforce and infrastructure.

According to the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation, the majority of funding provided to Michigan was used to train nurses and doctors to run community health centers for treatment of low-income patients and the rising population of Medicare recipients. What many people do not realize is how much has to be developed on the provider side congruently with the increasing access to healthcare across the country.

Gilda Jacobs, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services, told MLive that PPACA will also ensure the unemployed or workers lacking coverage from an employer will still be provided insurance.

“We’ve seen a trend over the last number of years that there has been a decline in employer-sponsored benefits," Jacobs explained. "A lot of it is just because of the cost of health care and the ways some businesses are reconfiguring their employee base."