Group's Petition for Healthcare Ends

Organizers didn't get signatures needed to place
universal plans on the Nov. ballot.

Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- Organizers are ending their campaign for a November ballot proposal to require the state Legislature to adopt a health care plan covering all Michigan citizens.

The group, Health Care for Michigan, on Friday announced it is abandoning its petition drive but plans to ask its 133,000 petition signers to help organize grassroots campaigns in their state House and Senate districts. Members want to turn up the heat on lawmakers to make health care a right of all citizens.

"The voice of the people will not be silenced," said the Rev. Patrick Gahagenpastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Detroit. "We're not done, we're not finished, we're not defeated."

 Gahagen is on the board of the faith-based Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES) in Detroit. He said the current health care system is a "morally corrupt" system that favors some while denying adequate health care to many others.

"We will end up with a stronger coalition of 133,000 voices and counting," said Marjorie Mitchell, director of the Michigan United Health Care Access Network (MichUHCAN), organized in 1990.

The ballot proposal would have asked voters to approve a constitutional amendment requiring lawmakers to develop a universal health plan for the state. The plan would have required state leaders to draw up a 'health care security plan' that would make certain that people with health insurance didn't lose it, provide health coverage for those without it and reduce health care costs for Michigan businesses.

"We were unable to secure the necessary signatures to get this on the ballot, but the fight for health care is going to continue," MichUHCAN chairman John Freeman said.

Health Care for Michigan began its petition drive in January. It had the backing of a dozen labor, religious, civil rights and health care groups. Organizers needed to collect 380,000 signatures to put the proposal before voters Nov. 4, but struggled to find the necessary financing to hire petition circulators.

The group was one of 10 ballot committees that launched campaigns this year, only a few of which remain. It's likely that just two or three of the committees will succeed in collecting the necessary signatures by the July 7 deadline.

You can reach Gary Heinlein at (517)371-3660 or gheinlein@detnews.com.