There will be a severe shortage of family planning services for Medicaid participants in Wisconsin if Planned Parenthood health centers are cut off from the state’s Medicaid program, a recent report shows.
The study found that “without Planned Parenthood health center’s participation in the state’s Medicaid program, low income women, particularly low income women of color, will face significant barriers to accessing family planning services and other reproductive health care.”
One of those barriers is the lack, or absence of, an alternative family planning service.
If centers were to close due to a lack of federal funds, 50 percent of the 15 counties, or 50,000 women, that use Planned Parenthood services in Wisconsin would have no alternative health care provider for family planning services, according to the report titled “Challenges to Underserved Women’s Access to Family Planning Services in Wisconsin 2016,” that medical experts conducted.
Alternatives that are available often do not have the same amount of services, hours of operation or appointments available.
Gaps in family planning services could leave many women untreated with existing health conditions, such as STIs, HIV and teen pregnancy. Planned Parenthood also provides preventive care such as cervical cancer screenings and wellness exams.
Earlier this month, House Speaker Paul Ryan proposed to stop funding Planned Parenthood through Medicaid and instead redirect those federal dollars, and the Medicaid beneficiaries, to federal community health centers.
“For every Planned Parenthood, there are federal community health centers. They are vastly bigger in network, there are so many more of them, and they provide these kinds of services without all the controversies surrounding this issue,” Ryan told CNN.
Following the report, incoming president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin Tanya Atkinson expressed her concern that Ryan’s plan could hurt people in his own state.
“These patients already face tremendous barriers to accessing health care, and without Planned Parenthood, most of these patients will have no other health care provider to turn to, which increases their chances for undiagnosed cancers, STDs, HIV, unintended pregnancy and other poor health outcomes,” Atkinson said.
