In the last legislative session, Texas lawmakers cut the state's family planning budget by two-thirds,
a loss of around $73.6 million over the next two years. The reason behind this, naturally, was that "family planning" is clearly a secret code word for "abortion."
"Of course this is a war on birth control and abortions and everything," Representative Wayne Christian told the Texas Tribune. "That's what family planning is supposed to be about."
Now, the Department of State Health Services has released new
documents showing how the new, lean, highly efficient family planning
budget is working for the state. Or not working. Those documents show
that the program is now serving almost 128,000 fewer people, while
spending more money per patient.
Jordan Smith at the
Austin Chronicle was the first to lay out the new program's flaws .
She points to a memo sent to the State Health Services Council by the
Department of State Health Services. The memo, which we've posted below,
shows that in 2012, the family planning budget served 75,160 people, at
a cost of $236.54 each. Last year, before the cuts went into effect,
the family planning money served 202,968 people, and cost $205.93 per
patient.
In other words, the cost per patient has climbed by 15 percent, while
the number of people served has nosedived by 63 percent. (A DSHS
spokesperson told the
Chronicle that's due to "infrastructure costs," and that the situation should "resolve itself over time.")
In the new funding structure, family planning money is going first to
entities known as federally qualified healthcare centers, which are
primary care community health clinics. There are 69 of them in Texas,
according to DSHS, operating at around 300 sites.
But FQHCS aren't specifically set up to provide family planning services, and,
as the Texas Observer points out
they have struggled to cope with the influx of new patients. Outside of
the new family planning money, many also continue to have serious
budgetary issues of their own.
Read the the full story @
Dallas Observer