SCOOP: Trump allies want Michigan Speaker to stop woke hospital bill that could hurt MAHA Agenda
Michigan Republicans are weighing a bill that could undermine President Trump's MAHA agenda, advocates warn.
Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, a Trump-supporting Republican, is reportedly weighing a bill to expand the 340B drug program in Michigan, multiple sources in Michigan and across America told the Washington Reporter.
The Reporter previously covered how the 340B program can be a woke hospital boondoggle that allows large hospital systems to buy medicine for lower-income patients at huge discounts.
However, an investigation from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee and other reporting has shown that hospital systems often sell the medicine at full price, pocket the difference, and use the windfall for everything from building out larger for-profit facilities to expanding transgender surgery facilities for minors, as the Cleveland Clinic has been accused of doing.
Health care advocates told the Washington Reporter that Michigan’s HB4878, as it is currently constructed, is “a backdoor power grab that lets Michigan’s hospital systems continue to grift billions from the federal 340B program while patients get no relief.”
Terry Wilcox, co-founder and Chief Mission Officer of Patients Rising, added to the Reporter that “that’s why it’s time for Congress to deal with this state-by-state patchwork mess and craft a smart federal solution that enforces patient discounts and real accountability, not preposterous Michigan-style $500 fines for violations that are more like parking tickets than measures that will curb and prevent hospital abuses.”
Wilcox is not alone in warning about the pitfalls of HB4878. Joe Grogan, a former Trump Domestic Policy Advisor explained that state legislators — especially Republicans — who are advancing 340B bills are working directly against President Donald Trump’s efforts to Make America Healthy Again by lowering health care costs.
“Big hospitals have come under scrutiny for lavishly spending 340B money on art displays and fancy architecture as well as woke initiatives like discriminatory DEI programs and climate activism,” Grogan added, “none of which contribute to patient care.”
As Speaker Hall considers advancing HB4878, Trump’s allies are urging him to change course for a litany of reasons, ranging from concerns about child genital mutilation surgeries to a broader undermining of Trump’s MAHA agenda.
“Henry Ford Hospital got an award from the Ml Hospital Association for their work for transing kids,” Riley Gaines noted. “They deleted the page, but the internet is forever. Henry Ford is a major 340B recipient. Michigan House members need to wake up and stop this bill.”
“Republican controlled Michigan House set to vote on provision which would circumvent Trump’s EO and use tax funds for [sex] change surgeries,” Libs of TikTok noted.
And Rogan O’Handley is specifically pressuring Hall — asking why “are Michigan House Republicans considering a vote this week on expanding the 340B woke hospital program that runs directly counter to President Trump’s MAHA agenda?”
Trump has yet to comment on the movement in Michigan, but sources close to the president told the Reporter that he will not take kindly to Republicans working against his MAHA priorities, which have been a cornerstone of his first 10 months in office.