Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
Created by the state of Michigan in 2005 under the tenure of Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the Michigan Quality Community Care Council (MQC3) withholds $6 million in dues annually from its "employees" and funnels these dues to the SEIU.
The "employees" of the MQC3? Some 45,000 private home care aides. And what exactly designates someone as a private home care aide? Joel Gehrke at The Washington Examiner provides a real life example of a husband/wife duo who find themselves unwitting employees of the MQC3.
Robert and Patricia Haynes live in Michigan with their two adult children, who have cerebral palsy. The state government provides the family with insurance through Medicaid, but also treats them as caregivers. For the SEIU, this makes them public employees and thus members of the union, which receives $30 out of the family's monthly Medicaid subsidy. The Michigan Quality Community Care Council (MQC3) deducts union dues on behalf of SEIU.
....“We're not even home health care workers. We're just parents taking care of our kids,” Robert Haynes, a retired Detroit police officer, told the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “Our daughter is 34 and our son is 30. They have cerebral palsy. They are basically like 6-month-olds in adult bodies. They need to be fed and they wear diapers. We could sure use that $30 a month that's being sent to the union.”
But someone riddle me this. Earlier this year, the Michigan legislature discontinued funding for the MQC3, and decided that the program would not continue to exist past Sept. 30 of this year. And yet, the MQC3 persists as a zombie entity.
“The union dues are still being withheld and are being sent to the MQC3,” according to Angela Minicuci, public information officer for the Michigan Department of Community Health, in an email sent to the Mackinac Center. “The MQC3 still exists and they are working to get funding for the home help registry.”
...“For the state to operate a dubiously formed government entity that has been defunded by the Legislature seems unprecedented,” said Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation.
Say what you will about the SEIU, but the organization's expertise in rent-seeking behavior is truly exceptional.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
"Block grant it to the states!" is the cry of conservative pols and politicians. The governors crave it. Block grant it to the states is a chimera.
This shows why. It gives the governors a big pot of money they can divert to pet causes, in addition to funding comfortable tenured sinecures in the bureaucracy for connected cronies.
Next time you hear "block grant it to the states" ask "how are you going to insure the money is spent for what it is granted for?" Push past "they'll be required by law to do so" because the states will do whatever they want and it will be up to the intended beneficiaries to litigate to force the state to do what it's required by law to do.
We're too deep into the dependency sinkhole to eliminate the programs. Vouchers are the answer.
Although as we hurtle towards the cliff of national financial collapse, the whole question will be moot in another 5 or 10 years because there simply won't be any money there to block grant, or voucherize, or kick out of the back of a C-130 in bales of C-notes.
Oct '11
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
What kind of exceptional are you talking about??????????
Dec '10
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
Nick Stuart:
Next time you hear "block grant it to the states" ask "how are you going to insure the money is spent for what it is granted for?" Push past "they'll be required by law to do so" because the states will do whatever they want and it will be up to the intended beneficiaries to litigate to force the state to do what it's required by law to do.
Competition. States that don't handle the money well will soon find themselves without citizens to rob.
Diane Ellis, Ed.:
Say what you will about the SEIU, but the organization's expertise in rent-seeking behavior is truly exceptional. ·
Unions make me so, so angry. Its hard to be able to argue with someone calmly when you are constantly reading stories like these.
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
The SEIU is exceptionally good at rent-seeking; they engage in this scummy behavior in a way that brings them optimal rewards.
Nov '10
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
Diane Ellis, Ed.
The SEIU is exceptionally good at rent-seeking; they engage in this scummy behavior in a way that brings them optimal rewards. · Nov 11 at 12:57pm
As my mother-in-law says: "Nobody is entirely useless. You could be used as a terrible example."
Apr '11
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
Lord Acton's axiom about the corruption of power points implicitly to the real problem and it lies within ourselves.
Not to be preachy, but how can you hope to change anything by any sort of edict.
Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" which leads me to assume our hope rests within each heart. Else where it is stated that "Unless a man examine himself......" which again speaks to an individual's responsibility.
Slavery didn't begin nor end by government edict but when individuals were convicted in their conscious, moved by their hearts which then assaulted their will to see it removed.
Any hope for America lies within each of our hearts.
Nick Stuart:
Next time you hear "block grant it to the states" ask "how are you going to insure the money is spent for what it is granted for?" Push past "they'll be required by law to do so" because the states will do whatever they want and it will be up to the intended beneficiaries to litigate to force the state to do what it's required by law to do.
Nov '11
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
As someone with Cerebral Palsy who has achieved an MA in Theology and is retired from employment as a hospital chaplain *because* of the caring personal assistance of family members and commited others (whose compensation - monetary and otherwise - can't begin to recompense them) this story both sickens and heartens me. "Block-granting" will continue to feed the zombies; compassion will continue to bring forth achievement and support for those who need it most.
May '10
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
Nyadnar17
Competition. States that don't handle the money well will soon find themselves without citizens to rob. · Nov 11 at 12:43pm
People who don't actually need Medicaid can move, people who really need it are stuck.
Mar '11
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
I believe the principal reason I was made redundant at age 50 was that I had accumulated a lot of entitlements. The company I worked for was taken over by a larger company that stripped out those parts of its operations that had competed with theirs then sold off the remainder. To make the rump look "leaner" they got rid of "burdens" like me.
An example of what made me a burden was that, because the company had a sick leave system designed to discourage abuse, had I become seriously ill, they would have had to pay me for around 180 days before I had to dip into recreation leave and "long service" leave, of which I had plenty. Union extorted benefits harmed me rather than helped me.
The industry I had worked in was a small one and eventually I took an unskilled casual job. This job had no benefits at all but one day the employees were informed the company had joined them up to a union because most of the companies they sub-contracted for did a lot of their jobs for the government which mandated that they , and any sub-contractors, be union.
Dec '10
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
It's a drearily sad state of affairs when I see something like this and the only thing I can must is "yep, seems about right."
In the spirit of our 11-11-11 I turned my outrage up to just that level and all I can muster is feeling mildly depondent. Living in a place where such an outrage can occur with such little notice makes you think twice about bringing children into the world.
Sep '10
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
An increasing amount of government activity is little more than criminal enterprise masquerading political endeavors. Both parties participate in these schemes and neither are willing to label any of them as corrupt. That is why it is time for a third choice.
Apr '11
Re: Michigan Zombie Entity Skims Dues from Medicaid Payments
Surely if they are paying dues, they count as members of the SEIU, right? 45,000 voting members might be enough to get a decent decertification vote going. Or maybe run a separate leadership candidate in the next vote? Cause them enough trouble/bad PR, and the SEIU might let them go...