State-Based Exchange For Health Plan Shopping Passes Senate, More News

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/18/2026) Senate Democrats on Thursday approved having Michigan create its own online marketplace where residents can shop for healthcare when they're not covered by Medicaid or insurance through work, joining 20 other states that have left the federal marketplace.

The Senate passed, along partisan lines, SB 973, SB 974, SB 975, SB 976, SB 977 and SB 978.

Having Michigan leave behind the federal marketplace, established under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has been proposed in Lansing before.

Proponents tout that doing so would allow the state to set its own terms for how long and how often residents can enroll, vetting insurers interested in participating and how user fees should be spent.

For instance, user fees under the bills would be spent on a risk pool – intended to help insurers keep premiums low by absorbing some of the expensive medical claims – and targeted advertising to get more Michiganders insured.

However, opponents have questioned how secure and fraud-proof a state-based marketplace would be. They also argue that it would not address the large-scale problems that have led to expensive healthcare across the United States.

"Instead of relying on decisions made in Washington, we'll have the flexibility with a state exchange to create a marketplace that works better and makes healthcare more affordable for the people of Michigan," said Senate Health Policy Chair Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores).

Republicans in the chamber made failed attempts to link the legislation to other reforms. For example, Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater) wanted to attach it to his SB 95, prohibiting hospitals from collecting debt without detailing the costs of treatments and operations on a public website that patients can research ahead of time.

SB 95 has passed both the Senate and House. However, Senate Democrats have not finished sending it to the Governor's desk, likely due to House Republicans amending the bill to remove its tie-bar to SB 94 . The other bill was aimed at blocking drug manufacturers from creating their own conditions before eligible hospitals can access their federal 340B program discounts on pharmaceuticals.

"Simply creating a new state bureaucracy will not make health care more affordable. What it will do is increase government spending. Estimates predict implementation costs ranging from $71 million to more than $232 million," said Sen. Michael Webber (R-Rochester Hills), a licensed insurance agent outside legislating. "These bills provide no guarantee that a state-run exchange will lower costs for consumers compared to the federal exchange."

He explained there needs to be assurance that Michigan families are the sole beneficiaries of any possible savings that come from the bills. He called for ensuring that user fees charged by the state aren't greater than those charged by the federal government for the ACA marketplace.

"I think it's important to note that the whole purpose of this package is to remove ourselves from the federal government's decision-making over health care decisions," Hertel said in response to Webber. "The federal government in recent history has proven that they do not care about providing affordable health care insurance to residents across our state."

Hertel added that the bills would keep the state's own user fees from being 1% greater or lower than the federal fee. In 2027, Hertel noted that the federal fee will be 1.9%.

As for other Senate news:

- The chamber passed 23-13 Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor)'s SB 966, SB 967 and SB 968.

The bills, led by Irwin, who's the Senate Housing and Human Services chair, would set aside $100 million that the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) could distribute each year in the form of nonrefundable tax credits to affordable housing developers.

The tax credits mirror the Low Income Housing Tax Credit that is offered federally, taking off developers' tax liability in exchange for them agreeing to keep rent under market rates.

"This is going to create thousands of units of housing that are promised to be affordable, and I can't think of many other things that we could be addressing here in this legislature that are more at the heart of the challenges that our residents face," Irwin said. "We have a housing crisis in our state. We need to address that with more public housing, but we also need to address it with more of this housing that is developed through our affordable housing partners through the housing tax credit system."

Sens. John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs), Mark Huizenga (R-Walker) and Michael Webber (R-Rochester Hills) joined Democrats to support the Irwin bills.

- The Senate also passed 31-5 Sen. Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit)'s SB 592. The bill looks to provide the same reentry services and housing support given to parolees to juvenile offenders, who had become eligible for resentencing starting in April due to a 2025 Michigan Supreme Court ruling.

Sens. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell), Joseph Bellino Jr. (R-Monroe), Jon Bumstead (R-North Muskegon), Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater) and Aric Nesbitt (R-Lawton) opposed the bill.

"What I read is a bill that is now going to treat juvenile offenders, based on having an updated sentence because of a Supreme Court, the same way that we would treat someone who actually has a conviction overturned," Lindsey said. "I would encourage anybody who's following this issue to look into the cases that are actually involved."

Lindsey noted charges of "extreme" things like first-degree murder, with no questions about their guilt or how heinous the crime was.

"I think it's wrong. I think it's an injustice to the people of Michigan to act like someone who is a convicted murderer, because of a technicality, should be treated the same way under Michigan law as someone who had their conviction overturned," Lindsey said.