By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
While all eyes are focused on the abortion funding in ObamaCare, a little noticed provisions which will expand access to family planning and contraceptives are quietly being implemented.
Politico is reporting that states are already using a new stream-lined process for applying for a Medicaid extension that will grant family planning coverage to lower-income residents who are not eligible for the public insurance program. ObamaCare made the program's application process, which used to take as long as two years to complete, much simpler and faster.
For states that participate in the new option, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will reimburses at a 90 percent matching rate all approved family planning services which include providing birth control pills and devices.
Thus far 22 states are participating and The Guttmacher Institute, which was founded by a former president of Planned Parenthood, projects that if just nine of the remaining 28 states participate, it will prevent approximately 7,500 unintended pregnancies a year, which would supposedly save the state $17.4 million.
Politico is reporting that since CMS made applications available in August, at least one state headed by a pro-life governor, South Carolina, has both applied and been approved for the permanent expansion of family planning services. The new health reform provision will allow the state to continue its family planning benefits for women without repeated renewal applications, as well as to expand its program to cover sterilization benefits for men.
“Traditionally, for a waiver, we had to apply every couple of years and had to jump through a lot of hoops and have a staff to manage it,” Alicia Jones, deputy director for eligibility for South Carolina’s Medicaid program, told Politico in an interview. “This is just, administratively, much easier to manage.”
Meanwhile, California has applied for the family planning program and is “currently working with CMS to secure their approval for a retroactive approval date of July 1, 2010,” says Tony Cava, a spokesman with the California Department of Health Care.
Wisconsin has also submitted an application for the program, according to local news sources.
However, the Medicaid provision isn’t the only part of health reform that could lead to greater availability of contraceptives. ObamaCare also requires insurers to cover "preventive health care" for women without requiring a copay, and gives itself the authority to determine exactly what services can be included under this provision. Should it decide to include contraceptives and abortion, it would force insurance companies to cover these services, thus pressuring health care providers to offer them regardless of their conscience rights.
Pro-abortion groups, many of whom rake in millions every year providing birth control pills to women and teens, are already lobbying fiercely in support of including contraceptives under preventive health care.
However, the U.S. bishops and other groups argue that pregnancy is not a disease and therefore doesn't qualify as "preventive care."
“To prevent pregnancy is not to prevent a disease—indeed, contraception and sterilization pose their own unique and serious health risks to women and adolescents. In addition, contraceptives and sterilization are morally problematic for many stakeholders, including religiously-affiliated health care providers and insurers,” said Deirdre McQuade, spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, at a hearing in November, 2010.
“Use of prescription contraception actually increases a woman’s risk of developing some of the very conditions that the ‘preventive services’ listed in the Interim Final Rules are designed to prevent, such as stroke, heart attacks and blood clots (especially for women who also smoke), so a policy mandating contraceptive services as ‘preventive services’ would be in contradiction with itself,” McQuade said.
She also highlighted the bishops' concern about the potential impact on conscience rights.
“Currently, such employers and insurance issuers [who object to contraception and sterilization] are completely free under federal law to purchase and offer health coverage that excludes these procedures,” she explained. “They would lose this freedom of conscience under a mandate for all plans to offer contraception and sterilization coverage.”
“Thus the Administration’s promise that Americans who like their current coverage will be able to keep it under health care reform would become a hollow pledge,” she concluded.
The government is expected to make an announcement in August of this year about whether or not preventive care will include these services.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
ObamaCare Expansion of "Family Planning" Quietly Moving Forward
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
While all eyes are focused on the abortion funding in ObamaCare, a little noticed provisions which will expand access to family planning and contraceptives are quietly being implemented.
Politico is reporting that states are already using a new stream-lined process for applying for a Medicaid extension that will grant family planning coverage to lower-income residents who are not eligible for the public insurance program. ObamaCare made the program's application process, which used to take as long as two years to complete, much simpler and faster.
For states that participate in the new option, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will reimburses at a 90 percent matching rate all approved family planning services which include providing birth control pills and devices.
Thus far 22 states are participating and The Guttmacher Institute, which was founded by a former president of Planned Parenthood, projects that if just nine of the remaining 28 states participate, it will prevent approximately 7,500 unintended pregnancies a year, which would supposedly save the state $17.4 million.
Politico is reporting that since CMS made applications available in August, at least one state headed by a pro-life governor, South Carolina, has both applied and been approved for the permanent expansion of family planning services. The new health reform provision will allow the state to continue its family planning benefits for women without repeated renewal applications, as well as to expand its program to cover sterilization benefits for men.
“Traditionally, for a waiver, we had to apply every couple of years and had to jump through a lot of hoops and have a staff to manage it,” Alicia Jones, deputy director for eligibility for South Carolina’s Medicaid program, told Politico in an interview. “This is just, administratively, much easier to manage.”
Meanwhile, California has applied for the family planning program and is “currently working with CMS to secure their approval for a retroactive approval date of July 1, 2010,” says Tony Cava, a spokesman with the California Department of Health Care.
Wisconsin has also submitted an application for the program, according to local news sources.
However, the Medicaid provision isn’t the only part of health reform that could lead to greater availability of contraceptives. ObamaCare also requires insurers to cover "preventive health care" for women without requiring a copay, and gives itself the authority to determine exactly what services can be included under this provision. Should it decide to include contraceptives and abortion, it would force insurance companies to cover these services, thus pressuring health care providers to offer them regardless of their conscience rights.
Pro-abortion groups, many of whom rake in millions every year providing birth control pills to women and teens, are already lobbying fiercely in support of including contraceptives under preventive health care.
However, the U.S. bishops and other groups argue that pregnancy is not a disease and therefore doesn't qualify as "preventive care."
“To prevent pregnancy is not to prevent a disease—indeed, contraception and sterilization pose their own unique and serious health risks to women and adolescents. In addition, contraceptives and sterilization are morally problematic for many stakeholders, including religiously-affiliated health care providers and insurers,” said Deirdre McQuade, spokeswoman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, at a hearing in November, 2010.
“Use of prescription contraception actually increases a woman’s risk of developing some of the very conditions that the ‘preventive services’ listed in the Interim Final Rules are designed to prevent, such as stroke, heart attacks and blood clots (especially for women who also smoke), so a policy mandating contraceptive services as ‘preventive services’ would be in contradiction with itself,” McQuade said.
She also highlighted the bishops' concern about the potential impact on conscience rights.
“Currently, such employers and insurance issuers [who object to contraception and sterilization] are completely free under federal law to purchase and offer health coverage that excludes these procedures,” she explained. “They would lose this freedom of conscience under a mandate for all plans to offer contraception and sterilization coverage.”
“Thus the Administration’s promise that Americans who like their current coverage will be able to keep it under health care reform would become a hollow pledge,” she concluded.
The government is expected to make an announcement in August of this year about whether or not preventive care will include these services.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
