Senator Jonathan Lindsey

Michigan House Speaker @RepMattHall says tackling medical debt starts with hospitals showing prices. “These guys won’t tell anyone what they’re charging for their services… that’s why we need the price transparency.” @SenLindsey's SB 95, the Hospital Price Transparency Act, would deliver on that.

Lindsey legislation to cap medical debt, reduce care-related financial burdens passes. LANSING, Mich. — A series of bipartisan bills sponsored by state Sens. Jonathan Lindsey and Sarah Anthony to reduce overall costs and lower financial burdens caused by medical debt for Michigan residents passed the Senate on Wednesday. “Health care is currently an overpriced, underperforming disaster and Michigan families have been feeling it for years,” said Lindsey, R-Coldwater. “There is a strong desire from my constituents, and surely from people around the state, to pursue policy changes to enhance health care outcomes and reduce out-of-control medical costs.” The Senate granted final approval to Senate Bills 449, 450, 451, 701 and 702, which significantly rein in debt collection practices like personal liens, wage garnishment and home foreclosures, while also capping interest rates applied to medical debt. The bills would also require all Michigan hospitals to create financial assistance programs to improve options for families facing a medical emergency, which is already a federal requirement for nonprofit hospitals. “A medical emergency shouldn’t become a lifetime of financial burden, and unfortunately, that is the case for many people,” Lindsey said. “More than 700,000 Michiganders are carrying medical debt, often because of a single emergency they never saw coming,” said Anthony, D‑Lansing. “These bills are about stepping in before that debt derails someone’s financial future. I’m grateful to Senator Lindsey for his partnership and proud of the bipartisan, bicameral work that brought this forward. No one should be punished for getting the care they need.” Lindsey said there is still significant work to do, noting that he has been working to get additional legislation he sponsored to improve medical procedure price transparency passed as well. Senate Bill 95, which received unanimous support in the House and is currently tied up in the Senate, would require hospitals to publicly disclose the costs of treatments and operations and prohibit the collection of debts if a hospital is not in compliance with price transparency laws. “Prices for medical procedures, medications and services should be easily available for people to consult and compare prior to choosing the option that best fits their needs and budget,” Lindsey said. “Not only will this improve options and outcomes for families, but it will also help further drive down medical costs. “I’m happy we were able to pass the bills we did, but there is an opportunity to do even more.” Lindsey commended Anthony for her work on the legislation and helping advance it in the Senate, as well as Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Caledonia, who has sponsored additional consumer protections surrounding medical debt in the House of Representatives. “I made improving medical transparency and working to provide better health outcomes a top priority when elected to office, and I will keep working to get meaningful reforms signed into law,” Lindsey said. ###

A tornado watch has been issued for parts of Indiana and Michigan until 2 AM EDT

There is a risk for severe storms tonight. Damaging winds, large hail, tornadoes & minor flooding will all be possible. The highest risk for tornadoes is along & south of I-94. Make sure you have a way to receive warnings that can wake you up along with a shelter plan. #miwx

Storm Update: Governor Whitmer's office has announced a planned state of emergency for Cass, Branch, and St. Joseph Counties, which will enhance the ability of all layers of government to continue to respond in the wake of yesterday's extreme weather. We grieve the loss of life and continue to pray for and support those impacted by yesterday's intense weather. From speaking with local first responders, I expect the first phase of response to continue today, which means it is important for disaster response to be done in coordination with local emergency management. In the days to come there will be much work for us to do as a community to help those impacted. Below are some important resources for those affected. County emergency management offices serve as liaisons to State and Federal resources that may be requested to address the needs of the County's population. Branch County Office of Emergency Management: (517)-278-3091 St. Joseph Office of Emergency Management (269) 467-9045 ext 255 Cass County Office of Emergency Management (269) 467-9045 If you are impacted by the storm and in need of immediate resources, Dial 2-1-1. 211 Michigan is a free, confidential service that connects residents with local health and human services, including help with food, housing, utility bills, and crisis support. If you are an affected Union City resident, Union City High School has been set up to serve as a resource center that includes a shelter and food bank. 517-741-8561 If you are an affected Three Rivers resident, Riverside Church has been set up with the help of the Red Cross to serve as a shelter. 269-273-8723 If you are an affected Edwardsburg resident, Edwardsburg Intermediate School has been set up to serve as a resource center that includes a shelter and food bank. 269-663-1063 Thank you all for being an incredibly resilient community that supports one another.

I will declare a state of emergency for Branch, Cass, and St. Joseph counties following the severe weather. We’re working with emergency teams to monitor the situation and coordinate resources for those impacted. My heart is with the families who lost loved ones or were injured.

Public Message from the St. Joseph County Sheriff following a report of a tornado touch down in Three Rivers and surrounding areas. Attention St. Joseph County residents: "We are asking everyone to please stay away from the north end of St. Joseph County until further notice. Emergency personnel are currently responding to an active situation in that area, and it is critical that our firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMS, and other emergency workers have clear access to do their jobs safely and effectively. Unnecessary traffic and onlookers can delay response times and create additional hazards for both the public and first responders. If you do not live in the immediate area or do not have essential business there, please avoid traveling to the north end of the county at this time. We appreciate your cooperation and patience as our emergency teams work to manage the situation. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available." Thank you for helping us keep our community safe. St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Office Note: MSP Marshall Post is assisting with this incident; however, go directly with St. Joseph County Sheriff for media inquiries.

The tornadoes today in southern Michigan did incredible damage, much of it in the 17th district. My heart and prayers go out to everyone impacted and I will continue to be in contact with great people in the area working hard to ensure the safety and welfare of residents. If my office can be of help to anyone impacted, please reach out to senjlindsey@senate.michigan.gov. I encourage everyone to help your neighbors, especially doing welfare checks on vulnerable community members, but also please stay clear of any work being done by first responders.

We said we’d be there for Michigan’s disasters, and we meant it. Due to today’s horrific weather event, we are organizing disaster relief for those affected by today’s tornadoes in southern Michigan. We are taking Amazon Wish List & monetary donations, similar to our previous efforts. All purchased items go to our office in Three Rivers, and we will deploy these directly to affected communities. Impacted communities include: Niles, Edwardsburg, Three Rivers, Union City, and many rural areas between. Please donate if you are able, and share if you aren’t. Amazon Wish List: a.co/0cKOAhwo Donate Monetarily: michiganstormchasers.com/get-involved/ Venmo: @MichiganStormChasers

A republic, not an empire... The United States must restore a government small enough to fit within the Constitution. Article I makes Congress responsible for declaring war. Now, Congress can't even define war. It's right & just to expect Congress to debate & vote.

“The U.S. dollar isn’t even backed by anything.” The U.S. dollar:

The arguments about Iran are so polarised that no one wants to admit that several things are true at once: You'd be a fool not to have serious reservations about the idea of a regime change war, especially in the Middle East. You'd also be a fool to allow terrorist-funding lunatics to develop nuclear weapons. Neither the people condemning these strikes, nor the people cheering them on know how this is going to work out. So far, Trump Administration interventions have been extraordinarily successful in achieving valid objectives within a highly limited scope. The strikes on Iran during the 12 day war achieved destruction of several nuclear facilities. The Venezuela operation decapitated the hostile regime and replaced Maduro with a non-hostile leader. Both also achieved significant "don't fuck with us" deterrence globally. However, it is not remotely clear at this moment in time whether something similar can be achieved in Iran. I understand and fully empathise with the people who think regime change is not going to work in Iran and you'll end up with the same as what you had or worse. And I understand just as much the people who celebrate an evil dictator being killed and Iran's nuclear and military assets being degraded further. The thing we do not know, and the thing that will determine whether this has all been worth it, is what the future leadership of Iran will look like. This seems to me to be the biggest risk Donald Trump has taken at any time in his first or second term. If it pays off, the reward both domestically and globally will be huge. If it doesn't and things go south, it could derail his Presidency and define his legacy like Iraq did for Blair and Bush. Very few people have any idea which of these scenarios is more likely and one thing is for sure: none of them are talking about it on social media because they're all sitting in command bunkers, not on X. I hope the people of Iran are released from living under tyranny. I hope the peoples of the Middle East can live in peace. I hope the takeaway for any would-be terrorist is the realisation that October 7 might not have been such a good idea. I hope that with the Middle East stabilised, the US can turn its attentions to the theatres that really matters to the security of the West: Russia and China. Whether any of that happens remains to be seen and it seems the hardest thing for anyone to do is to not express an opinion before the smoke has cleared.

If you’re a proponent of this war, so be it. Make your case. But lecturing skeptics for not “trusting Trump” is the dumbest argument you could possibly make. It is perfectly reasonable for American to be skeptical of regime change wars in the Middle East. Trump himself was skeptical of them. The idea that we are obligated to just assume it’s a good move because Trump decided to do it is asinine, not to mention un-American.

As always I only support military action anywhere, in any context, if it directly serves the interests of American citizens. It’s troubling that the arguments we’re hearing for this war in Iran, including from Trump himself, seem to revolve primarily around “bringing freedom to the Iranian people.” As Americans, the freedom of Iranians is not our responsibility. If a single American life is lost in the service of that goal, it will be a travesty. What nobody has even come close to sufficiently explaining is how this war will first and foremost directly benefit American citizens. That is a case that needed to have been made clearly and convincingly before this move, and it wasn’t. We’re also told how this will benefit Israel, and I’m sure it will. But Israel is not America. What does it do for America? How does it help us? That needs to be explained to us. And it isn’t “panicking” or demonstrating “disloyalty” to demand those very basic answers about how American tax money, and potentially American lives, are being spent. We hear about the danger of a nuclear Iran, but that’s odd because we were told that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had already been set back decades. We hear that this war will be over quickly and easily because Iran is powerless, which I hope and pray is the case, and maybe it will be. But that’s odd, too, because if Iran is such a paper tiger then how were they a danger to us in the first place? It seems hard to argue both that Iran is an existential threat to the United States and that we can topple them in 20 minutes with no casualties or negative downstream effects. Also the political calculation really matters here. A huge majority of American oppose this. That’s just a fact. If it costs Republicans in 26 and 28, then, no matter how things work out in Iran, it will not have been worth it. A free Iran at the cost of Democrat rule here at home is a bad deal. A free Iran for an unfree America would be just about the worst trade of the century. I’m praying for our great country today.

"Gov. Whitmer has always had willing partners in Republicans in trying to make meaningful change to make the state better, but she's either resisted it or gone in totally different directions." - @SenLindsey

Charlie Kirk, in June of 2025, explaining why a massive US war against Iran, and an attempt to facilitate regime change, as pushed by people like Lindsey Graham, is "pathologically insane":

We asked Senate Republicans what they want to hear from Gov. Whitmer during her final State of the State speech tonight. Some said reading. Others said jobs. One was surprised to hear she's actually in the country for once.

I have a way to “move on…”

@SenLindsey is championing a bipartisan legislation to address medical debt in Michigan. This week on WDET's MichMash, Gongwer News Service's Zach Gorchow sits down with the senator to see what interested him in this issue. (1/2) bit.ly/4a3AuUY

@GongwerMichigan Thanks for having me on!