Governor Gretchen Whitmer has vetoed a bill that would have had serious implications for nursing home residents recovering from COVID-19.
Senator Peter Lucido (R-Shelby Charter Township) was the bill’s sponsor. He’s says that the governor’s policy of placing recovering COVID patients in so-called regional hubs has resulted in loss of lives.
But the available data doesn’t support that.
Critics of the bill, like Representative Leslie Love (D-Detroit), called the bill incomplete and unrealistic (Love’s words were “faulty” and “impossible”). They also called it potentially dangerous for the seniors it would have affected.
In her letter to the Senate explaining the decision to veto, Whitmer echoed those concerns.
“The legislation fails to explain how such facilities would be staffed or paid for, or how frail residents would be protected during the potentially traumatic transfer from one facility to another,” she wrote.
The bill moved quickly through both chambers. It garnered broad Republican support and marginal Democratic support.
Meanwhile, the state health department hired the University of Michigan’s Center for Health and Research Transformation to assess the governor’s regional hub policy.
The group expects to have a report ready by the end of August.
