Rep. Pingree decries cuts to Planned Parenthood, Medicaid
May 28—Rep. Chellie Pingree on Wednesday slammed the House Republicans' budget bill for targeting Planned Parenthood's federal funding and for the bill's overall health cutbacks to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.
"If this bill passes, you would be seeing a massive loss in access to health care," Pingree, D-1st District, said during a roundtable discussion she hosted at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England offices in Portland.
Nicole Clegg, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England — which provides abortion care, reproductive health care and other primary care services — said the nonprofit would stand to lose about $5.2 million in federal funding if the current version of the bill is signed into law.
That represents about half of the annual revenue for the nonprofit, which serves Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
"Everything is on the table," Clegg said when asked if clinics and service lines could shut down. "That is a tragedy."
Planned Parenthood operates clinics in Portland, Biddeford, Topsham and Sanford.
Clegg said the bill is "about targeting states where abortion is legal and making it impossible to access."
Federal funding does not pay for abortions, but Planned Parenthood receives federal dollars for its other health care services, including through Medicaid.
Maine Family Planning, the state's other abortion provider, is not specifically targeted in the bill the way Planned Parenthood is, but it would be affected by the health care cutbacks in the bill.
Besides Planned Parenthood clinics across the country being under threat, the House bill would also result in about 14 million Americans becoming uninsured, including a projected 38,000 people in Maine.
The increase in the uninsured rate and other cutbacks to to health care will result in rural hospitals closing, a sicker population and insurance rates increasing, Pingree said.
Republicans who voted in favor of the bill argue that it's rooting out "waste, fraud and abuse" in Medicaid, and that government is bloated and needs to be cut.
"We're not doing any cutting of anything meaningful," President Donald Trump told reporters after the bill passed the House.
The bill has yet to be taken up in the Senate, where Republicans hold a four-seat majority. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has said she's against Medicaid cutbacks, but has also said she would be willing to consider "reasonable" work requirements.
The House bill would result in people losing Medicaid coverage if they fail to meet work requirements or incorrectly filling out paperwork.
Pingree said the work requirement provisions are effectively cutting Medicaid because the bureaucracy surrounding filling out the forms and meeting the paperwork requirements will result in people losing coverage. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 13.7 million Americans will lose their health insurance if the current version of the bill passes.
According to KFF, a health policy think tank, about 75% of current Medicaid recipients work or are students, with most of the remaining 25% not working because they are disabled or retired.
The bill would also cut health care by reducing Affordable Care Act subsidies that make ACA insurance premiums less costly.
While Collins and a few other Republican moderates, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, may be pushing scale back Medicaid cutbacks, some conservatives in the Senate are saying the bill doesn't go far enough and are pushing for larger cuts.
Meredith Ruxton McIntosh, 55, of Hallowell, who was part of the roundtable discussion, said the cuts to Planned Parenthood need to be reversed. McIntosh, a U.S. Air Force veteran, said when she was young she got counseling, primary car and other help from Planned Parenthood, and she was able to lead a productive life because of the help she received.
"Without the medical care and counseling that I was able to access through Planned Parenthood I would have likely dropped out of high school, never joined the military, never attended college or trade school and most certainly would have indulged in addictive substances to the detriment of my life," she said.
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