Planned Parenthood clinics are losing clients because of Obamacare.
Many newly insured women are heading to providers in their Obamacare networks rather than Planned Parenthood — an ardent supporter of the health care law — Reuters reports.
The loss of clients is a major challenge on top of a Republican-led effort to strip the non-profit of federal funding as the clinics’ dealing in aborted fetal tissue comes to light. Planned Parenthood currently receives half a billion federal tax dollars each year.
“Some people relied on us because they were uninsured prior to the Affordable Care Act,” Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan CEO Lori Carpentier told Reuters. “Now they can go anywhere for care, and some of them have been.”
The clinics she oversees expect to see 58,000 clients this year — a 15 percent drop since Obamacare went into effect in Fiscal Year 2012. Reuters interviewed dozens of affiliates and found a similar problem in many states, although some clinics report they have added newly insured clients.
Planned Parenthood’s clientele has been dropping nationwide for years, in part because states such as Texas and Wisconsin have defunded the organization. But the decline accelerated when Obamacare took full effect — dropping about 6 percent nationwide from 2013 to 2014, according to recent data.
The decline could be considered positive, if it reflects a declining need for low-cost access to contraceptives or is a result of the recent drop in abortion procedures — both stated goals of Planned Parenthood.
Or it could reflect a deliberate choice to avoid abortion providers. Randall O’Bannon, director of education and research for the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, told Reuters that insurance coverage lets women “go someplace where they can get a broader range of services and can avoid a place that also does abortions.”
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