What happens when elected officials choose to “play politics” with Medicaid? No one wins. This is especially evident in situations that involve health care coverage for women who are low income. Recently, two different courts made opposite decisions that will directly affect the ability of women to access health care.
Medicaid is a public, or government run, health insurance program. The federal government provides some of the funding for Medicaid. The government of an individual state also provides some funding for Medicaid. This program is designed to provide health insurance coverage for individuals and families who cannot afford to buy a health plan from a private insurance company.
The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has decided to play politics with the state’s Women’s Health Program. It is part of the Medicaid program. To make a long story short, Texas chose to exclude Planned Parenthood from receiving funding from WHP. In plain English, it means that women who are covered by Medicaid could no longer go to Planned Parenthood for health care.
His decision to cut the funding from the largest provider of women’s health care in Texas resulted in the federal government ending the federal funding for the WHP. The state of Texas is about to take over the program using only state funds. The program is very limited, and no longer covers “emergency birth control”, treatment for STD’s, diabetes, or cancer.
Dr. Kyle Janek, the Health and Human Services executive commissioner threatened to end the entire WHP if a court decided that Texas had to include Planned Parenthood as a health care provider. Doing so would completely remove the limited access that women who use WHP had to health care.
The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans ruled to allow Texas to withhold funding for women’s healthcare from Planned Parenthood’s clinics the organization also preforms abortions. This means women in Texas who use WHP cannot go to Planned Parenthood for health care anymore.
In Arizona, federal judge Judge Neil Wake blocked Arizona from applying a law that mirrors the one in Texas. The judge ruled that Arizona cannot apply a law that bars Planned Parenthood clinics from receiving money through the state to provide health care for women because the organization also preforms abortion. This is a completely opposite outcome to what the other court decided about Texas.
Medicaid is designed to provide health care to women who are low income. Laws that cut Planned Parenthood, the biggest provider of women’s health care, out of the Medicaid funding results in making it more difficult for women who use Medicaid to obtain the health care that they need. It is unacceptable for Governor Rick Perry and Governor Jan Brewer to play politics with women’s health care!
Image by Brian Turner on Flickr