One of the pillars or discussion points at this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference is Restoring Civility in American Politics. That means finding ways to get leaders of all kinds to work together, compromise for progress and depolarize today’s political environment.
Someone who truly understands that need is Jean Meyer, MSN, RN. Meyer is President & CEO of St. John Providence Health System, the largest provider of inpatient care in southeast Michigan and one of the largest employers in metro Detroit. St. John Providence provides comprehensive prevention, primary care, and advanced treatment programs with more than 125 medical centers and four hospitals spanning four counties.
Meyer has more than 27 years of experience in Catholic Health Care including front-line patient care experience as a registered nurse and senior leadership experience within a large health system. Plus, she like everyone else is healthcare is watching the debate around the Affordable Healthcare Act.
“We’ve got to stop calling it ‘Obamacare’ or ‘Trumpcare.’ It’s healthcare for people who need it,” Meyer said.
Meyer is on Mackinac Island in part to see what she can do to encourage political civility, create new relationships and deepen her understanding of business as well as healthcare issues.
Q: Why did you want to attend the Mackinac Policy Conference?
A: Health care reform is the big issue around here. I love seeing the conference talk about civility in politics. IN my world, this is impacting people’s lives, and not working together is just not going to work. This is one of the biggest issues that we face. Other issues within healthcare are growing healthcare costs, behavioral health issues, suicide prevention and more.
Q: What are you hearing from Conference participants and others?
A: People are scared. People might lose their healthcare coverage, and they’re worried about what they’re going to do. It’s a huge issue. That’s among our guiding principals at Ascension Health: We need to decrease uninsured population, we need to assist hospital to care for those who are poor and vulnerable and we need to make the marketplace competitive. Competition lowers the cost and raises the quality. We need to pay for quality and not volume. We’re also looking at personal responsibility. People aren’t used to that. They want the easy way out. But taking control of your health is critical.
Q: What are some of the trends in healthcare?
A: We recently opened our facility is Livingston County (in Howell) on the West side. So much of what we do is moving out patient. That’s where most healthcare happens. The fact is 95 percent of us will never go into a hospital. Our care is always outside the acute care world. We need to integrate with primary care physicians and have healthcare where they live. You can get what you need on the local level. That’s the trend. People are afraid of these big, huge brick buildings. We want to make it easy to drive in and out, get in and out and that’s going to encourage more healthcare usage as well.
Voices from the Island: Jean Meyer on Political Civility, the Affordable Healthcare Act and Caring for All added by Karen Dybis on
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