Governor: Push Hard For Women's Health!
For Immediate Release: May 18, 2014
Planned Parenthood Urges Governor Schwarzenegger to Push Hard for a Healthy Budget for Women
Street Theater and Rally to Ask Gov. Schwarzenegger to Fully Fund Preventive Care
Los Angeles – California’s premier family planning program is dangerously close to falling apart. That’s because in the past 20 years, reimbursement rates to providers of family planning services have not significantly risen while the cost of providing preventive health care has increased 300%.
The fallout is that family planning providers like Planned Parenthood have to turn away more than 10,000 patients every month. The lack of funding for clinicians and staff is causing dangerous delays, cutbacks on programs like pre-natal care, testing and treatment for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and cancellations.
“Planned Parenthood is here today to ask Governor Schwarzenegger to remember his “pregnant” days and help save cost-effective family planning programs by increasing Medi-Cal reimbursement rates,” said Mary-Jane Waglé, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles.
Preventive care is common sense. All family planning services, not just our state program for low-income women, are eligible for a $9-to-$1 federal match, according to federal statute.
Additionally, it would only cost California $4.8 million to implement an increase to 80% parity with Medicare beginning in Jan. 2008. That would bring in $13.8 million in Federal Funds.
“Right here in Los Angeles, Planned Parenthood is seeing just 100,000 out of an estimated 700,000 residents that need care,” said Waglé, adding, “This is not just a reproductive health care crisis. It is a public health crisis. And the time for the Governor to fix it is now.”