LANSING, Mich. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed on Friday a bill that will establish an emergency stockpile of medical supplies to prepare for future emergencies.
House Bill 4087 will amend the Emergency Management Act to require the Department of Health and Human Services to stockpile the medical supplies necessary to respond to a state of disaster or state of emergency in Michigan, according to a news release.
It would also require the health department to display a list of its medical supplies inventory on its website.
The bill would give preference to goods or services manufactured or provided by Michigan businesses.
“COVID-19 has had an immense impact on our state’s health care system and its ability to provide quality care in critical conditions,” Whitmer said. “This bill will ensure that our state’s health care system is better equipped to handle future emergencies.”
House Bill 4087 was sponsored by Rep. Jeff Yaroch, R-Richmond, and a copy can be found here.
“We’ve learned a lot of lessons from the COVID pandemic, and one of them is we must be better prepared as a state for this type of emergency,” said Yaroch, who is also a paramedic and former firefighter. “People think the federal government stockpiles enough supplies to handle a pandemic – that's simply not true. This new law will create a stockpile of PPE to ensure that emergency responders and health care workers have what they need to stay safe.”
