Great Lakes Wire

Every election season, Michigan politicians promise to make health care “more affordable.” Working families, retirees, and small business owners don’t need lofty speeches or hollow reform slogans, they need the guarantee that their leaders won’t support any policy that makes health care or prescription drugs more expensive.

That pledge should be a no-brainer in a state where the cost of living is climbing and families are already stretched thin. Premiums and out-of-pocket costs have been rising for years, and prescription drugs remain one of the biggest drivers of household debt. The last thing Michigan families can afford is another wave of legislation that tilts the system in favor of pharmaceutical companies while pushing costs higher for everyone else.

Across the country, well-intentioned “transparency” or “reform” bills have backfired, disrupting the networks and negotiations that actually keep prices in check. The result has been fewer pharmacy options, higher copays, and greater instability for employers and union health plans. Those mistakes shouldn’t be repeated here. Any proposal that weakens the ability to secure lower drug prices will only make healthcare less affordable.

Michigan’s next governor and legislators must make a clear commitment to pass no new laws that raise premiums, copays, or prescription costs. Every policymaker who claims to fight for working families should be able to agree on that, because when pharmacies close, when benefit costs rise, or when care becomes harder to access, it’s Michigan’s workers and retirees who end up paying the price.

This isn’t about politics, it’s about pocketbooks. Democrats often talk about expanding coverage. Republicans talk about efficiency and fiscal responsibility. Both goals depend on keeping the cost of care down. Supporting policies that drive prices up only undermines those values and rewards the very companies most responsible for high drug costs.

The more barriers lawmakers create for the systems that negotiate and coordinate care, the more expensive everything becomes. Michigan doesn’t need performative legislation that sounds good in a press release but fails in practice. It needs policies that protect access, promote competition, and hold Big Pharma accountable when prices soar.

Healthcare affordability is one of the most pressing economic issues in this state. Every family depends on reliable access to medicine and predictable costs at the pharmacy counter. Any bill that jeopardizes that stability should be dead on arrival.

As campaign season heats up, voters should demand straight answers from every candidate. Michiganders have carried the burden of rising costs long enough. The next governor’s job is to protect the systems that work, fix the ones that don’t, and stop passing laws that make health care harder to afford.

Ration is the owner of Darken Consultants. He holds a degree in geopolitical history.