For Immediate Release:

October 5, 2007


Media Contact: Andrea Gage
414-213-3717 (cell)

 

Pass Budget Now for Women’s Health
Assembly Family Planning Funding Cuts + Stalemate=Disaster for Wisconsin

Madison, WI- Health care providers, advocates and supporters are urging legislative leaders to pass a budget now to preserve women’s access to health care in Wisconsin. 

 

The problem with the current budget negotiation is twofold. First, the Republican-led Assembly’s budget proposal virtually eliminated the state’s family planning network, which serves more than 30,000 women in 68 of the state’s 72 counties. The anti-health care Assembly leadership slashed funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings and dismantled the Medicaid Family Planning Waiver, which provides much needed health care to low-income women.   

 

Second, the Assembly leadership has refused to back down from these draconian cuts to women’s health care in order to preserve their proposed tax breaks for big oil and other special interests. This type of behavior has led to the current budget stalemate, which could have devastating effects on the women of Wisconsin. If the Legislature fails to agree on a budget, beginning January 1, 2008, the Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS) will be forced to slash Medicaid reimbursement rates for hospitals and providers like Planned Parenthood that serve the low-income and uninsured in Wisconsin by 28 -35%.  The reduction in Medicaid funds would cost the state over $83 million in federal matching funds each month, straining the public health system and ultimately resulting in poor health outcomes and higher costs passed on to taxpayers.

 

If the Legislature does not agree on a budget:

 

  • Family planning services provided by the Medicaid program would be reduced by $117,983 each month.
  • Family planning services provided under the Medicaid Family Planning Waiver program will be reduced by $132,548 each month.
  • Services provided under the Well Woman Program would be reduced by $67,844 each month.

 

“Cuts resulting from our failure to adopt a timely budget will have a substantial and costly impact on our ability to serve thousands of Wisconsinites in need of affordable health care,” said Lisa Boyce, vice president of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin (PPAWI).   

 

More than 300,000 women in Wisconsin need publicly funded reproductive health services, yet Wisconsin can only serve 93,000 of these women at current funding levels.

 

“The need for affordable, prevention based health care in our state is so great. Those who are stonewalling efforts to come to a budget agreement should be ashamed and need to be reminded of the human cost of their inaction,” said Boyce.

 

“The Assembly leadership should stop trying to waste time as they search for ways to give tax breaks to big oil on the backs of women who need health care,” added Boyce. “The hardworking women and families of Wisconsin deserve better.”  

 

                                                                                               

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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin is the advocacy arm of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin (PPWI). The mission of PPWI is to empower all individuals to manage their sexual and reproductive health through direct services, education, and advocacy.  www.ppawi.org