Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health Friday Notes

November 14, 2014

In this issue

Senate Committee Approves Child Safety Seat Requirements

Mobile Dentistry Forms Open for Comment

New KIDS COUNT Report Suggests Two-Generation Arppoach for Services

Senate Committee Approves Child Safety Seat Requirements

Michigan statute regulating child safety seats would be updated to current federal and American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations under a bill reported Wednesday from the Senate Families, Seniors and Human Services Committee.

MCMCH helped initiate discussion with Sen. John Proos (R-St. Joseph), sponsor of the bill (SB 1135), earlier this year at the urging of Dr. Michelle Macy of C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Dr. Macy practices in the emergency department and does research and evaluation with their Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit. Her practice experience as well as her research focused on the experience of families and disparities that exist in appropriate use of child passenger restraints or "car seats" led her to urge updating of the law.

MCMCH Executive Director Amy Zaagman testified before the committee on Wednesday and noted that Michigan families get safety seat information in their pediatrician's office and in marketing materials from seat manufacturers, but conflicting messages about what is safe from Michigan statute.

Too many children are pushed forward into seats that are not appropriate for their physical development and it leaves them more vulnerable in a crash. More than 100 children younger than 8 die in a crash in Michigan each year. And for many children injuries are more severe than they would have been in had they been in an appropriate restraint.

"It leaves parents not understanding what the safest thing is for their child and it leaves law enforcement not enforcing the strongest standard," Zaagman said.

Under SB 1135, harnessed safety seat requirements would be based on weight, and booster seat requirements would be based on height.

"It's important that we bring the code up to date with today's empirical evidence," Sen. Proos told committee members.

The bill would require children weighing less than 30 pounds to be in a rear-facing car seat. Between 30 pounds and 50 pounds, the seat could face forward. Children weighing more than 50 pounds, but shorter than 57 inches, would be required to sit in a booster seat.

A second bill (SB 1134) would allow but not require hospital staff to point out to new parents that their seat is improper or improperly installed.

The committee reported both bills on 3-0 votes, with Sen. Vincent Gregory (D-Southfield) absent for another committee.

____________________________________________________________________________

Mobile Dentistry Forms Open for Comment

Public comment is now open for several draft documents related to mobile dentistry operations. The comment period will end the close of business December 12, 2014.

Signed by Governor Snyder in April, PA 100 requires owners of mobile dental facilities to apply for a permit through the Department of Community Health, and it defines appropriate equipment and supplies for such facilities. The law also requires mobile dental facilities to establish relationships with local area dentists to ensure patients are referred for proper follow-up dental procedures and improved treatment. PA 100 takes effect April 1, 2015.

The nine draft forms and supporting documents are available here.

Comments can be emailed to MDCH-MobileDentistry@michigan.gov.

____________________________________________________________________________

New KIDS COUNT Report Suggests Two-Generation Approach for Services

A new Annie E. Casey Foundation report, Creating Opportunity for Families: A Two-Generation Approach, outlines common sense strategies to deliver high-quality early childhood education while helping parents with access to job training, career paths and other tools that will enable them to support their families.

"In Michigan and across the country, efforts focus on helping kids in poverty and other efforts help parents,'' said Jane Zehnder-Merrell, Kids Count in Michigan Project director at the Michigan League for Public Policy. "This report calls for an approach that looks at the whole family. With so many struggling families in our state, it's important that we take action to help kids and their parents together."

In Michigan, 510,000 children ages birth to 8 live in families earning less than 200 percent of poverty. That's less than roughly $47,000 for a family of two parents and two children. Those children represent 49 percent of all kids 0-8. Data by county is available here.

The KIDS COUNT® policy report calls upon public, business and nonprofit leaders to work toward enacting policies that help kids while helping their parents get on career paths that will lead to family-supporting wages.

Michigan is on the right track with a P-20 educational data system that, when fully implemented, will be two-generational. It will track children's educational progress as well as that of their parents (if they are in school), and will enable cross-checking educational indicators with salaries, employment and public assistance. This will enable the state to determine how well educational and public assistance systems and programs are working.

____________________________________________________________________________

Contributors to this Issue
Gongwer News Service
HealthDay
MDCH
Michigan League for Public Policy
__________________________________________________________

Quick Links . . .

Breastfeeding Bills Clear House

A package of bills that would clarify the state's ban on public nudity so that it does not include breastfeeding or expressing of breast milk were passed in the House this week.

House bills 5678, 5679, 5680 and 5681 passed the House 106-0 on Wednesday.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Healthy Michigan Enrollees Almost Hit 450,000
The state is just 51 persons short of 450,000 people having signed up for the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expanded enrollment, meaning the state could actually hit the total number of people it had ever expected to enroll by early December. On Monday, the Department of Community Health said 449,949 people had enrolled in the program.
When the state launched the program on April 1 it had estimated a total of 470,000 would have enrolled sometime in 2015.
The state hit its total goal for 2014 enrollees, more than 300,000, in July. Wayne County has the highest number of residents enrolled, with 123,000 signed up (more than 66,000 of those are Detroit residents). Macomb County has the second-highest number of residents enrolled with more than 34,500.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

More Legislative Leadership Positions Announced

Senate Majority Leader-elect Arlan Meekhof has officially named Sen. Dave Hildenbrand as the next Senate Appropriations Committee chair beginning in January. Sen. Hildenbrand succeeds Sen. Roger Kahn (R-Saginaw Township), who is term-limited.

Sen. Meekhof (R-West Olive) has also named Sen. Jim Marleau (R-Lake Orion) to chair the Committee on Committees to help decide who will serve on what committees in what capacity next term. Also sitting on that committee will be Sen. Darwin Booher (R-Evart), Sen.-elect Jim Stamas (R-Midland) and Sen.-elect Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake).

Sen. Dave Robertson (R-Grand Blanc) was named chair of the Policy Development Committee, and joining him will be Sen. Goeff Hansen (R-Hart), Sen.-elect Wayne Schmidt (R-Traverse City), and Sen.-elect Margaret O'Brien (R-Portage).

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Altarum Seeks Senior Oral Health Program Manager

Altarum Institute is seeking a Senior Program Manager to join their Information & Technology Strategies (ITS) group in
Ann Arbor, MI to manage a 3-year Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services innovation program that is designed to reduce the burden of childhood dental disease. A full job description is available here. Apply online here.