Family Planning Advocates Testifies: Family Planning Funding Saves the State Money

ALBANY, NY (02/09/2010)(readMedia)-- In testimony before the Joint Budget Hearing in Albany today, Family Planning Advocates of New York State President and CEO M. Tracey Brooks urged lawmakers to be mindful of increasing demands for family planning services and declining health center revenues. She demonstrated savings the state realizes in family planning funding.

"In making difficult decisions for the 2010-11 state budget, please consider that family planning funding saves the state money and promotes economic recovery," she stressed.

"For every 1 dollar spent on family planning services in New York, 4 dollars in Medicaid costs are saved. And, for every one of those Medicaid dollars New York spends on family planning, the federal government reimburses the state 90 cents-a 90/10 match. Both of these savings are realized within the SAME BUDGET YEAR," she stressed.

"As you can see, funding for family planning is a cost-effective public health strategy. In fact, more than 6 in 10 patients receiving care at a women's health center consider it their primary source of health care," Brooks said.

Family planning centers throughout New York State, including Planned Parenthoods and hospital-based and freestanding health centers, provide critical reproductive health care. Services include:

• family planning counseling,
• contraception,
• pregnancy testing,
• prenatal and postpartum care,
• health education, and
• treatment and counseling for sexually transmitted infections and diseases.

Patients are primarily women of child-bearing age. With the economic downturn, providers are seeing some variations in patient visits, with most reporting an increase in new patients over 40 who have recently lost health insurance.

A national study by the Guttmacher Institute found that, during this economic downturn, women are seeking to delay child bearing, while at the same time they are reporting problems paying for contraception. "Our health centers are experiencing this trend first-hand," Brooks explained. "Increasing numbers of people are seeking our services and increasing numbers of them are eligible for publicly funded services. And, those who are self-pay patients are unable to meet their financial obligation for their care."

Family planning centers have made prudent business decisions in the face of continuing financial challenges, including static Medicaid rates for 15 years, state funding cuts in the past few years and two years of mid-year budget cuts. Centers have reduced staff and services to meet their smaller budgets.

Family Planning Health Care spurs economic stability

"Not only do family planning services preserve public health and safety, they contribute to a strong economy," Brooks said. She pointed to a direct correlation made between economic stability and the availability of reproductive health care by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month as she addressed the 15th anniversary of the Cairo conference.

Brooks quoted from Secretary Clinton's speech, "There is a direct connection between a woman's ability to plan her family, space her pregnancies, and give birth safely, and her ability to get an education, work outside the home, support her family, and participate fully in the life of her community."

"Underfunding women's reproductive health care at the state level will most certainly impede New York's ability to rebuild the state's economic infrastructure. Healthy women and families contribute greatly to New York's recovery," Brooks concluded.