Health care advocates are pushing back against a new congressional Republican plan that would make cuts to Medicaid. In Michigan, that includes services for people enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion plan that was adopted in 2013.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says 2.6 million Michiganders are enrolled in Medicaid. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration issued a report earlier this month — before the Sunday-night rollout of the GOP budget proposal — warning of the potential impact of Medicaid cuts by the federal government.

“It’s foundational to our health care system, whether you rely on Medicaid or access healthcare through another payer,” said Monique Stanton of the Michigan League for Public Policy, a human services advocacy organization.

Stanton said one in four Michiganders get health coverage through Medicaid. She said that means hospitals and other providers rely on Medicaid funding to keep their doors open for people who come in with Medicaid, private coverage or no insurance at all.

Stanton said the 2014 Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion cut in half the amount of money that care providers were losing by treating people who could not afford to pay. She said that helped many rural hospitals and clinics keep operating.

“We did not necessarily have the rate of health care and hospital closures in other states – specifically states that did not have expanded Medicaid,” she said during a media call reacting to the GOP plan. “So, this could really have a specific impact in rural Michigan.”

Anthony Wright with the health care advocacy organization Families USA said the GOP plan would essentially push people off the Medicaid rolls “by putting paperwork and bureaucratic barriers in the way of people getting on and staying on health coverage.”

“This means asking many to re-enroll not just once but twice a year,” he said. “This means having more convoluted and complex requirements for determining eligibility and income that could otherwise be done easily and electronically. And this means work-reporting requirements even though the overwhelming majority of non-elderly, non-disabled adults on Medicaid are working, but simply at low-income jobs that don’t provide health coverage.”

Republicans behind the proposal have said it’s necessary to cut waste and reach the Trump administration’s budget-cutting goals, and to sustain a tax cut from President Donald Trump’s first administration. 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A lawmaker from Detroit is joining the crowded field of Democrats vying for the battleground state’s open Senate seat, one of the most critical races as the party aims to regain a majority in the 2026 midterm election.

Michigan state Rep. Joe Tate launched his campaign Sunday to compete against three other Democrats seeking the seat left open by retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Tate spoke about his campaign goals and referenced his grandparents, who came to Detroit from Alabama as part of the Great Migration.

“I’m running for the U.S. Senate, because I want to continue to keep that promise that my grandparents came up to Michigan for,” he said.

To become the Democratic nominee, the former marine and NFL football player will have to convince voters to look past significant setbacks to the state party under his leadership.

Tate made history in 2022 when he became the first Black speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, the highest position in the chamber. That fall, Democrats swept statewide offices and gained historic “trifecta” control of both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office.

Democrats passed significant legislation on gun control, climate change, reproductive rights and labor, repealing the state’s “right to work” law.

But their momentum stalled ahead of the 2024 fall elections and fell apart after Republicans won back the state House in November. Tate announced after the election that he would not seek a leadership role among House Democrats the next year.

In the final days of the legislative session, internal divisions among Democrats caused Tate to abruptly end the session. The move effectively killed dozens of bills including key Democratic priorities on economic development, road funding, ghost guns and reproductive health data.

Republicans took control in January, and the Legislature has been deadlocked on most topics since.

Many Democrats and Republicans alike have blamed Tate for disastrous final days when Democrats still had control.

Nine bills from the 2024 session approved by both chambers have still not been presented to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The new Republican speaker of the House has said it was Tate’s job to get them to Whitmer’s desk.

“It’s just unfortunate that some people decided to stop coming to work when the job wasn’t done,” Tate said in response, referencing one Democrat and the entire Republican caucus who boycotted the final days of session in order to stall it.

Tate said he is proud of the work Democrats accomplished while they held the majority in the Legislature, referencing legislation on universal background checks to purchase firearms and free breakfast and lunch for school children.

“I see kids with full bellies in schools because of what we did,” he said.

A deep bench of Democrats began to eye the U.S. Senate seat after Peters this year announced plans to retire at the end of his term. U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and former gubernatorial candidate and public health official Abdul El-Sayed have all launched campaigns for the position.

On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers is running again after losing to Democrat Elissa Slotkin in the state’s 2024 U.S. Senate race by just 19,000 votes.

–Reporting by Isabella Volmert, Associated Press

Congressman Shri Thanedar announced Monday that he has drafted articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, accusing him of violating the U.S. Constitution.

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The Detroit Democrat cited Trump’s defiance of a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of a man who was mistakenly sent to a prison in El Salvador and trying to abolish government agencies without Congressional approval.

“Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unfit to serve as President and represents a clear and present danger to our nation’s constitution and our democracy,” said Rep. Thanedar in a news release. “His unlawful actions have subverted the justice system, violated the separation of powers, and placed personal power and self-interest above public service. We cannot wait for more damage to be done. Congress must act.”

The resolution is not expected to go anywhere in the Republican-led House.

Other headlines for Wednesday, April 29, 2025:

• Michigan State Rep. Donavan McKinney is challenging incumbent Shri Thanedar for the 13th Congressional seat.
• The Arab American nonprofit organization ACCESS and the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) are teaming up with several community groups to host the 19th Annual National Arab American Service Day at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 3, mobilizing over 400 volunteers for hands-on environmental projects across metro Detroit.
• The Detroit Pistons will take on the New York Knicks in Game 5 of Round 1 of the NBA playoffs on Tuesday. If the Knicks win, they’ll face the winner of No. 2 seed Boston or No. 7 Orlando in the Eastern Conference semifinals. If the Pistons win, they will stay alive and force a Game 6 at Little Caesars Arena.

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