Rick
Perry made a big mistake when he denied Federal Medicaid funding for the
Women’s Health Program to make a political statement over abortion.
The Women’s Health Program (WHP) is a
Medicaid program that provides low-income Texas women with annual pap-smears, STI
testing, contraceptives, and diabetes screenings among other preventative care.
At the beginning of the year, Texas
state governor Rick Perry decided to make an executive order denying abortion
affiliates from receiving federal Medicaid funding for the WHP. He made an exemption for hospitals, meaning that the only
affiliate being excluded was, can you guess? Planned Parenthood.
Texas’ new law explicitly disregards
federal Medicaid law that requires women be able to choose any medical provider
that is qualified to perform services covered under the WHP.
Excluding Planned Parenthood from
the WHP because they are an abortion affiliate is nonsensical; to qualify for
WHP you have to be between the ages of 18 and 44 and importantly, not pregnant.
Under the Hyde Amendment, no state or federal money has helped pay for abortions since 1976.
The Medicaid Women’s Health Program
is 90% funded by the federal government- for every $1 Texas invests the feds
give us $9. Texas is denying nearly $35 million dollars in federal funding for
preventative care for women. Texas pays about $1.3 billion annually for
unintended pregnancies, the highest price tag in America except for California
whom we are tied with for first place.
Rick Perry has promised that the
state of Texas will cover the funds we will lose by the implementation of the
new law. This notion is interesting, because last legislative session, Texas
cut preventative care funding from $111 million down to just $38 million when
facing a devastating budget crisis. This resulted in nearly 300,000 women losing
access to care. By implementation of the new executive order denying abortion
affiliates (wait, just Planned Parenthood) from receiving funding, an
additional 130,000 women will lose care.
Rick Perry’s argument has been that
Planned Parenthood makes up only 2% of WHP providers. This is true, but they
also provide a whopping 44% of the services. A lot of Texas doctors cannot
cover Medicaid services, because they get a much higher reimbursement from
private insurance companies. Doctors literally cannot afford to accept
Medicaid. Without Planned Parenthood,
the WHP will not have the capacity to operate. Jose Camacho, the executive
director of the Texas Association of Community Health Centers has said there is
no way the remaining health centers that have suffered budget cuts will be able
to build the capacity quickly enough to continue care for the 130,000 women who
rely on Planned Parenthood for their annual exams and other preventative
services.
A reporter asked the governor what
Texas would do if Texas could come up with the money, but providers still could
not cover the services. Perry’s response was, “Well, I don’t live in what ifs.”
That sounds like an extremely illogical argument, and a dangerous one. I for one
am fond of back up plans when it comes to health care for 130,000 Texas women.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, another
staunchly pro-life Texas representative, has actually dissented against Rick
Perry’s choice to reject federal funding, a move that surprised Planned
Parenthood and its supporters. Someone with political will in Texas knows that
the Women’s Health Program in no way funds abortions, because you can’t be
pregnant and receive services from the program! There is hope for Texas.
It is important for Texas’ governor
to sit down at the table with the federal government, and decide how to resolve
this issue. One in four Texas women lack health insurance, and Texas has the
third highest rate of cervical cancer in the nation. Texas cannot afford to
reject money for preventative health care for low-income Texas women.
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