BETSY COFFIA IS A COMMON SENSE LEADER WHO GETS RESULTS FOR NORTHERN MICHIGAN.
Expanding Access to Healthcare
Betsy grew up in a home of hard working parents who couldn’t afford health insurance, and always struggled to pay doctor bills and access care. In 2020, Betsy survived a serious brain tumor that required major surgery and hospitalization, months out of work recovering and $300,000 in medical bills. Because of these life experiences, expanding health care access to all remains Betsy’s biggest reason for being in public service.
As State Representative, she voted to codify the Affordable Care Act into Michigan law, to ensure those with pre-existing conditions aren’t denied coverage regardless of what Congress may choose to do nationally. Betsy also voted to lift the cap on health insurance contributions, such that those with expensive or long term conditions receive the care they need throughout their life.
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After hearing directly from oncology care providers here in the 103rd District that Michigan was one of the few states that didn’t require insurance companies to cover oral chemo and how much that harmed patients, Betsy helped pass a bill to ensure oral chemotherapy treatments are covered by insurance so cancer patients can afford this less invasive care option.
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Beyond physical health, Betsy and her colleagues have taken the mental health crisis head-on, expanding the Community Mental Health budget and voted to increase school mental health and safety funding by $300 million in 2023 and $25 million additional ongoing in 2024.
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Betsy understands there is much more work to do to ensure access to quality mental health care and is actively working to find solutions for in patient mental health beds for adults and children in our region and to bring more providers of physical and mental health care to northern Michigan.
Protecting Reproductive Freedom
Betsy believes politicians should mind their own damn business about women’s bodies and reproductive freedom. She voted to repeal Michigan’s 1931 abortion ban, expand access to contraception, support IVF and decriminalize surrogacy contracts.
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Betsy repealed politically motivated, medically unnecessary statutes written by Right to Life lobbyists that criminalized nurses and doctors, forced health care providers to close, raised costs for patients, and restricted access to abortion.
PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT
Betsy’s voting record champions our clean water, land and air, earning her a perfect score from the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.
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She voted to help keep communities safe by guaranteeing lead poisoning screenings for children. Betsy proudly supported the MI Clean Water Plan and voted to invest over $2 billion to upgrade drinking water facilities. She has successfully championed funding to protect the Great Lakes from pollution.
Betsy understands climate change is a serious threat to current and future generations and was proud to be a House sponsor of Gov. Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan, which passed and was signed into law. This plan will make Michigan a leader in the move to carbon free energy by 2040 and spur both lower energy costs and more than 100,000 clean energy jobs as well as help Michigan lead the nation in drawing down billions in federal clean energy infrastructure dollars to invest straight into our local communities.
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Locally, Betsy also successfully advocated for $15 million in funding for the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center in Elmwood Township, Leelanau County, which will bring hundreds of good-paying jobs to Northern Michigan and make our region a global hub for research of the Great Lakes.
STRENGTHENING PUBLIC EDUCATION
Betsy’s greatest point of pride in her first term when it comes to supporting education, was informed by direct personal experience. She grew up in Kalkaska County and in the 1990s when she was in high school, inequity for rural school funding had a direct negative impact on her community. The school district ran out of money, had to close months early. It reopened that fall, but had to cut busing to a 400-square-mile school district to keep the doors open and make payroll.
This left countless families scrambling for twice daily transportation for their children for months. Betsy knew as a new legislator that school districts like TCAPS and Benzie Central also have bus routes spanning hundreds of square miles and that decades later, the state still didn’t provide equity funding for those huge additional costs, which can be as much as 10-15% of schools’ general fund budgets.
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Betsy tackled this inequity head on. Her first stand alone bill was a per pupil, per mile equity formula for rural school busing. Betsy is proud that in her first six months on the job, she got it done! Her rural transportation equity formula is now part of the School Aid Budget and brings $125 million to rural school districts, freeing up more money for students' learning, for things like art, music, mental health and college prep.
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As a former Traverse City Area Public School classroom employee, I am committed to strengthening public education so every kid in northern Michigan can reach their full potential and every dedicated teacher and education professional has the support they deserve to do their critical work.
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I know the importance of every school, regardless of zip code, having access to good educators, materials, and support services. That’s why I worked to pass the biggest education budget in Michigan’s history, all without raising taxes. We secured free breakfast and lunch for every public school student so that no child is hindered from learning by a rumbling stomach.
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In a second term, I’ll continue to invest in our children, support staff and teachers, so that no student falls through the cracks and everyone can realize their fullest potential.
Working for
Housing for All
​As a Grand Traverse County Commissioner, Betsy was frustrated with state law that prohibited the use of Brownfield Redevelopment funds on housing, one of our region’s most urgent needs. As a freshman state lawmaker, she voted to change that law to add housing as an explicit allowable use, and successfully remove bureaucratic red tape for communities to build and retrofit more housing.
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Informed by thousands of conversations with constituents, Betsy has made housing a continuous top priority, and in both 2023 and 2024 has brought millions to the district to support housing goals - this includes $300,000 for Housing Readiness specialists to assist local communities in seeking state and federal funding and in updating zoning, as well as $5 million to build housing for educators. It also includes voting for hundreds of millions in the state budget for low and middle income housing, preventing veteran homelessness, and creating the first ever Housing Fund as a permanent line item in the state budget in 2023.
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For Betsy the need for affordable housing is not an abstract problem others face but a challenge she knows first hand having spent much of her younger adult life moving rental to rental until being fortunate enough to land a fixer upper first home in 2015. She knows the price of housing has skyrocketed since then, that it directly impacts our businesses, hospitals, schools and other employers’ ability to attract and retain talent, and that it is key to our seniors, workers and families’ ability to live in our region. This is a tough problem that requires tenacity and Betsy will continue to work with all willing partners to turn over every rock and chase every lead to address this basic need for shelter for all her northern Michigan neighbors.
