The state's women's health program is not providing enough services to those who need it, finds. Advocates say that should give the federal government pause as it reviews an application from Texas health officials to help pay for it.
Stacey Pogue, an analyst with the left-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities, which conducted the study, says she and others have been collecting data on Healthy Texas Women ever since it kicked Planned Parenthood out in 2011. The program offers reproductive health services to low-income women in Texas.
鈥淲hat we鈥檝e learned is that according to the state鈥檚 own data, after splitting Planned Parenthood, women in Texas lost access to health care," she said. "That trend wasn鈥檛 reversed by the extensive effort the state undertook to bolster enrollment in the program by providers that weren鈥檛 Planned Parenthood."
When Planned Parenthood was first cut from the program, the number of providers in it dropped dramatically. The state quickly got to work adding new providers and made progress with that.
In June, Lesley French, a senior official with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said the number of providers in the program has steadily grown.
鈥淲e have over 5,300 providers now in this program and it鈥檚 just growing,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o, we are very excited that the access is increasing to women鈥檚 health care services.鈥�
Pogue found that while the first part of what French said is true, that last part hasn鈥檛 really happened.
According to Pogue鈥檚 study, for each provider the state added to the program between 2010 and 2016, 10 women stopped using its services. In all, roughly 36,000 women dropped those health care services.
鈥淭he whole point of this program is to give women who are trying to prevent or delay a pregnancy, give them the tools to do that,鈥� Pogue said. 鈥淭urns out that when Planned Parenthood was part of the program, nine out of every 10 women in the program got health care services under the program. They got a well-woman exam. They got contraception. But in the most recent year, only about three out of every four women in the program got any health care services under the program.鈥�
Pogue and other women鈥檚 health advocates argue the federal government shouldn鈥檛 throw money at Healthy Texas Women in its current form. She said the state is running a policy experiment 鈥� and it鈥檚 failing.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 pretty clear from Texas鈥� experiment that this kind of simple story that some folks tell themselves that, 鈥極h, you can exclude Planned Parenthood because other providers will fill in the holes and fill in the gaps鈥� that鈥檚 not what happened in Texas,鈥� she said.
French said in June that the data available to researchers doesn鈥檛 give a good snapshot yet about how well the current program is doing. She said it will be several months before that data is available.
However, French said she鈥檚 heard anecdotally that new providers are seeing more patients.
The state鈥檚 application for federal money is also likely to end up in court, because advocates say kicking out Planned Parenthood doesn鈥檛 just cause bad health outcomes, it also violates some existing federal laws.
The government will stop taking public comment on the Healthy Texas Women application on Friday.
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