Christian Taliban defunding of Planned Parenthood will cost Arizona federal Medicaid funds

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) aka the Christian Taliban assault on women's reproductive health care, in particular its attempt to defund Planned Parenthood this week, could wind up costing Arizona federal Medicaid funding, as it has for the state of Texas — not that these "legislative terrorists," as Sen. David Shapira called them, give a damn. Legislator David Schapira lambastes conservative lobbyist Cathi Herrod.

The Christian Taliban and its Christian Reconstructionist and Dominionist allies in our God's Own Party (GOP) Tea-Publican legislature passed HB 2800 through a Senate panel to defund Planned Parenthood this week. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Senate panel votes to cut off Planned Parenthood funding – Arizona Capitol Times:

Arizona Republican legislators are seeking to accomplish what their party mates in Congress failed to do — stop public money from going to Planned Parenthood.

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[Christian Taliban] lobbyists succeeded on March 15 in persuading a Senate panel to advance a proposal that would prohibit the state from contracting with any entity that performs an abortion or runs a facility where abortions are performed.

The prohibition would apply to Planned Parenthood, which performs other health services, including gynecological exams, testing for sexually-transmitted diseases and breast cancer screenings.

The measure, HB2800, would also require public funds for family planning to only go to certain places, such as state-owned health care centers and rural hospitals. The bill also specifies their order or priority.

No basic health care for you, ladies! (Can't you just hear Rush Limbaugh calling you "sluts" and "prostitutes"?)

This bill is in addition to the Christian Taliban's other major legislative initiative this session that makes it illegal to perform abortions if the fetus is determined to be at least 20 weeks old. That bill is awaiting a vote of the full Senate. [HB2036, sponsored by Rep. Kimberly Yee, a "strike everything" amendment that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation except in the case of a medical emergency to the mother and impose new requirements for informed consent laws, parental consent, and requirements for abortion clinics.]

Many of Planned Parenthood’s patients who get non-abortion services are covered by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program.

The bill would preclude AHCCCS from paying Planned Parenthood for those services. Similar proposals have been adopted in other states.

“We are making sure that no tax dollars are indirectly funding abortion,” said Rep. Justin Olson, a Republican from Mesa and the bill’s sponsor.

What this tool Justin Olson has not thought about — or perhaps he has and just doesn't give a damn — is that this will cost the state of Arizona matching federal funds for its AHCCCS (Medicaid) program, as it has for the state of Texas (that other hotbed of right-wing lunacy). Daily Kos: Texas loses Medicaid funding in effort to spite Planned Parenthood:

Last Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that they would be informing the State of Texas that the state would lose basic health and family planning services funding from Medicaid because it is in violation of federal law. The state wrote Planned Parenthood out of the state's Women's Health Program, a Medicaid-waiver program.

As of today, Texas has been officially informed that the funding is lost, via this letter from HHS official Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations (CMSO). Here's the key part:

Texas has elected to move forward with a State rule that restricts freedom of choice of health care providers for women enrolled in WHP effective March 14, 2012 Consistent with longstanding statutory provisions that assure free choice of family planning providers, the Demonstration does not provide the State the authority to impose such a limitation, and we advised the State in our December 12, 2011 letter that we had concluded that such authority would not be granted. We very much regret the State's decision to implement this rule, which will prevent women enrolled in the program from receiving services from the trusted health care providers they have chosen and relied upon for their care. Last year, nearly half of all the services under WHP were provided by clinics that are likely to be excluded from the program under the new rule.

In light of Texas' actions, CMS is not in a position to extend or renew the current Demonstration, except for purpose of phasing out this Demonstration.

An HHS official told reporters today:

“Medicaid law is very clear; a state may not restrict patients’ choice of providers of services like mammograms and other cancer screenings, if those providers are qualified to deliver care covered by Medicaid. Patients, not state government officials, should be able to choose the doctors and other health care providers that are best for them and their families. In 2005, Texas requested this same authority to restrict patients’ choices, and the Bush Administration did not grant it to them either.”

So if the Christian Taliban's ultimate goal is to deny health care to poor people and to blow a hole in Arizona's state budget, they are well on their way to success with this ideologically driven punitive legislation.

The best part is this bill is entirely unnecesary: current law already prohibits any public money, including federal funds, from being used for an abortion services unless it is necessary to save the mother’s life. Senate panel votes to cut off Planned Parenthood funding – Arizona Capitol Times:

Arizona also already bans public money from paying for a health insurance that provides for abortion services.

But Olson said the public is still “indirectly” financing abortions.

Isn't this always the way with ideological extremists? It's never enough for them. And facts simply do not matter:

Theresa Ulmer, who lobbies for Planned Parenthood, said the proposal continues the attack on women, particularly those who are low-income, and their ability to make health care choices.

Ulmer said Planned Parenthood’s funds are segregated and no government dollars go to finance abortions.

“The shell game of saying that it’s indirectly supporting abortion by allowing Planned Parenthood to provide preventive health care services to the public is disingenuous. It’s not happening. It’s never happened. It never will,” Ulmer said.

For far-right extremists, Planned Parenthood has become a target to be destroyed, like ACORN a couple of years ago. It is an exercise in affirming that the far-right still has the power to destroy the objects of their blind hatred. The facts and truth are casualties in their never-ending war against their fellow American citizens.

UPDATE: Earlier, GOP front-runner Willard "Mittens" Romney doubled-down on his promise to defund Planned Parenthood. The Maddow Blog – Romney vows end to Planned Parenthood funding:

It's also worth noting that Republican support for Planned Parenthood was the norm for nearly a half-century. Barry Goldwater and George H.W. Bush championed the health organization; Reagan never balked at PP funding in the budget; and none of this was considered controversial in the slightest. There's no clearer example of the GOP's shift to the extreme than its newfound disgust for Planned Parenthood.