There has been a great deal of talk recently about cutting off Federal funding to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood receives Title X and Title XX funds from state, federal, and local governments to help the poor and needy get birth control. Or at least, that’s the story. Things are not necessarily what they seem at Planned Parenthood.
Pro-life activist Robert H. Ruff picketed outside the third largest Planned Parenthood clinic in the United States. He noticed that the dumpster next to the building was stuffed with computer printouts. He examined the information and discovered that Planned Parenthood had thrown out over two years worth of records, including financial records of over 50,000 office visits.
Using several trips and several cars he took the bags of print-outs home.
In the records, they found some interesting things about Title X and XX funds.
Apparently, when funds are given to PP by the government, there are no rules or guidelines about criteria as to which patients these funds should be reserved for.
If a person receives Medicaid, for example, the government first had to determine that they were in fact poor or disabled. But no such rules govern what Planned Parenthood patients deserve government funding. That means, while a patient on Mediciad must actually be poor or disabled to qualify for medicaid funds, a patient whose visit to Planned Parenthood is paid for by Title X funds need not be. The government INTENDS that such funds be used for poor people, but there is no way to enforce this. According to Ruff and the records he found, he says that PP used the funds to finance birth control mostly for people who , in fact, were of the same demographic of those who paid in cash. Evidence, according to him, that the “free” birth control provided by PP is not only gong to those who cannot pay, but just as often to those who CAN pay.
In fact, in a Planned Parenthood memo to clinic directors, explaining how to qualify clients for Title XX (Government Funds) they gave the following example:
“Example 2: An 18 yer old patient states that she is a full-time college student. She is part-time employed with an average income of $50.00 per week. Her parents send her 150.00 per month for food. They also pay her tuition directly to the University. The student also uses her summer employment savings of $2,000.00 to contribute to her monthly expenses. The student calculates that she uses about 150.00 a month to meet her other expenses. The patient is wearing three gold necklaces, two rings with multiple stones, one has rubies and diamonds, and the other has a black onyx stone with diamonds. She also has a Gucci purse and an obviously new pair of leather shoes. She states that her father is a banker and earns $35,000.00 a year and her mother is part time employed with an income of $10,000.00 a year, the patient has two siblings.
Question: How is eligibility calculated and determined?
Answer: First and foremost, the patient is 18 years old, therefore she is a legal adult. Her parents and siblings are disregarded in determining eligibility….this person would be Title XX eligible and assessed a co-pay of 20%.”
So even a girl who has enough money for expensive jewelry and high fashion clothes is eligible for help from the government to pay for her birth control pills.
But surely, if funds are cut off from Planned Parenthood, some affiliates will go out of business, right?
Well, in the summer of 1986, Planned Parenthood ran out of Title XX funds in certain areas and went cold turkey off federal funds with only medicaid funds, nothing else. They had to charge virtually all their patients straight cash fees. Did the clinics close? Not at all.
The minutes of the PPHSET Board of Directors meeting of Sept 24, 1986: (directly quoted)
“Follow-up- If you recall at the Annual Meeting in May, I presented a pessimistic view of our financial condition going into the summer months. This was primarily due to our running out of Title XX funding in Regions Eleven and Six.
I am happy to report that the gloomy forecast did not come true, for a variety of reasons:
— Absent goverment funding, patients were willing to pay for their own care
…..
As I hope was mentioned in the Treasurer’s Report, we finished 85/86 in the black. This success was due to a number of facts:
The clinic staff successfully shifting patients to cash paying status vs government funding….”
The meeting also mentioned that donations from private organizations helped supplement their income.
So is it true that Planned Parenthood will not be able to survive without government funds?
As if all this isn’t enough, Ruff’s examination of the 50,000 office records revealed something else.
Ruff found that the Planned Parenthood records showed that the organization charged more money for services to clients whose visits were being covered by government funds.
For a pregnancy test Planned Parenthood charged 3 1/2 times more money to Title XX (federal) clients.
If a client paid cash, they were charged 15.75 for a pregnancy test
If they were title XX patients, they were charged a it a whopping 57.93! Just for a simple pregnancy test! When a home pregnancy test can be purchased for several dollars, Planned Parenthood has the goverment paying 57.93 to provide pregnancy tests to patients, many of which aren’t even poor.
BTW, when Medicaid picked up the tab, the cost was 47.18.
The same kind of overbilling occurred with other Planned Parenthood services.
Average cash cost of initial birth control visit: 32.13
Title XX cost: 77.55
Medicaid cost: 63.81
Average cash cost of annual birth control visit: 40.61
Title XX: 85.83
Medicaid: 69.58
Average cost in cash for birth control repeat visit: 25.37
Title XX: 35.94
Medicaid: 25.16
Average cash cost for birth control supply visit: 10.29
Title XX: 35.62
Medicaid: 16.75
(Tables on PGS 24-27)
Should Planned Parenthood continue to receive millions of dollars in taxpayer funds with virtually no oversight as to how these funds are used? I would argue no.
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Source: Robert H. Ruff “Aborting Planned Parenthood: Documented Proof of Planned Parenthood’s Systematic Exploitation of Teenagers and Taxpayers” (Lewiston, NJ: Life Cycle Books, 1988)
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