The Washington Post reported this week that Indiana could lose out on some Medicaid funding from the federal government because of the stateās efforts to cut funding for Planned Parenthood. Other states planning to cut funding for preventative health services for women, Florida for example, might also face similar scrutiny from the federal government.
Florida state legislatorsĀ stripped a federal mandate from the stateās Medicaid overhaul that required service providers to offer family planning services. If instituted, Floridaās Medicaid reform program will allow providers to choose to not provide family planning services such as birth control due to āmoral or religious grounds.ā
According to a statement from the U.S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, āMedicaid does not allow states to stop beneficiaries from getting the care they need ā like cancer screenings and preventive care.ā
The Post reported:
[Medicaid and Medicare Services’] review appeared to pose the latest challenge to the contentious law signed by Gov. Mitch Daniels on May 10. The law makes Indiana the first state to deny Medicaid funds for general health services such as breast exams and Pap smears and affects more than $1 million in Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.The stateās non-partisan Legislative Services Agency also raised questions about the law. In a recent analysis, it noted that the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration said federal law requires state Medicaid plans āto provide any eligible individual medical assistance and that they can obtain such assistance from any institution, agency, community pharmacy, or person, qualified to perform the service(s) required.
Basically, Medicaid plans must include a way for every provider to offer every eligible person the same medical assistance and preventative care. As it stands, it is not clear that Floridaās plan does this.
Stephanie Kunkel, a spokeswoman for the Florida Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates,Ā told The Florida Independent that the Medicaid overhaulās proposal is āunprecedented.ā She said no other state allows a provider to completely opt-out of providing a federally mandated service like family planning.
The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services said they will monitor the situation in Indiana, as well as the situation in other states.