Next Head Of Community Health Vows To Find Budget Cuts

<p><em><a href="mailto:lweber@mprn.org">By Laura Weber</a></em></p> <p>The next director of the state Department of Community Health says she hopes to make Michigan a healthier state and still cut costs. </p> <p>Governor-elect Rick Snyder named Olga Dazzo to the position today. She says she's not ready to say where she would cut costs with the department, but she says a lot can be done with technological advances and record keeping. </p> <p>"By reducing duplication, ensuring that there's safety for patients, so those are some of the innovations," she says. "The good news is if we really set our heads to it, we'll find them. And we'll make them happen."</p> <p>With expanding costs of Medicaid, the department has some of the biggest budgetary challenges.</p> <p>Dazzo says she'd also like to continue implementing some parts of the national health care reforms. </p> <p>"There are some good things that are in there, other things might not be," she says. "So all of us will have to decide, but again, we're not ready just yet to tell you what parts we would be implementing."</p> <p>State Attorney General Mike Cox has joined several other states in a lawsuit against the federal government, so states can opt out of the national health care plan. </p> <p>Governor Granholm does not approve of the lawsuit.</p>