Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday vetoed legislation that would have directed COVID-19 patients to dedicated facilities instead of nursing homes with uninfected patients.
The legislation was backed by Republican lawmakers critical of Whitmer’s handling of nursing home response in the early days of the pandemic.
In a statement, Whitmer said Senate Bill 956 would be harmful to nursing home residents and other COVID-19 patients.
“Senate Bill 956 is nothing more than a political game that would relocate vulnerable seniors without any requirement for consent, doctor’s approval, or notification to patients and their families,” she said. “It’s time for the Republican legislature to get serious about protecting our most vulnerable and addressing the public health and economic crisis faced by our state.”
Senate Bill 956 would have required the state to inspect and designate one dedicated facility for coronavirus-positive patients in each of the state’s eight health care regions by Sept. 1.
After that, a hospital that determines a positive patient who isn’t a nursing home resident and is ineligible for hospitalization would need to transfer the person to either a dedicated facility or a field hospital.
A person who had tested positive couldn’t be transferred to a nursing home until recovered. Nursing home residents who contract coronavirus would need to be moved to a physically separate building or to the COVID-specific facility the state had designated.
Currently, the state has designated regional hubs that can either be separate facilities or separate units within nursing facilities to house COVID patients needing long-term care, but not hospitalization.
Whitmer’s critics in the legislature have said the administration’s policy put vulnerable nursing home populations at risk of contracting the disease.
“I’m still appalled that this happened,” Sen. Peter Lucido, the bill’s sponsor, said on the Senate floor in June. “For some yet unknown reason, state officials made these decisions to bring COVID-19 patients into facilities with disastrous results.”
In a statement following the veto, Lucido said he was disappointed by the decision to veto “this extremely important and commonsense legislation.”
“Politics should not prevail over the health and safety of our seniors and health care workers, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate and House to consider passing a veto override,” he said. “We owe this to our citizens, especially the seniors and vulnerable members of our communities who cannot speak for themselves.”
The coronavirus has, in Michigan and elsewhere, particularly affected elderly populations. According to data released by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services last month, 34% of COVID-19 deaths in Michigan are linked to nursing homes.
