President's 2010 Budget Overview Includes Medicaid Family Planning Expansion
February 26, 2009 - 12:05pm (Print)
President Obama's 2010 "Budget Overview Document" it out, and there's "great news" for in it for reproductive health advocates, says Tait Sye of Planned Parenthood.
While the overview is generally non-specific, it does make clear that the Medicaid family planning expansion -- which would extend Medicaid coverage for family planning services to non-pregnant women -- is included (see page 127). The expansion, which would enable states to extend coverage to non-pregnant women without first seeking a waiver from the federal government, was first included in the economic stimulus package. When widely decried by Republicans, it was quickly abandoned by President Obama, who asked congressional Democrats to drop the provision.
"The inclusion of a provision to expand eligibility for Medicaid funded family planning services is a tremendous step forward in meeting the need for access to family planning services. Federal funding for family planning is a common sense, common ground solution that enables people to act responsibly, stay healthy and plan for strong families," Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, said in a statement. Gallagher also called for the budget to fund Title X at $700 million.
The overview is promising on a number of other sexual and reproductive health priorities, including committing to "fund[ing] models that stress the importance of abstinence while providing medically accurate and age-appropriate information to youth who have become sexually active." But the outline does not reveal whether funding for abstinence-only programming will be eliminated. "We are cautiously optimistic about the language in the President's overview," says Jen Heitel Yakush, Assistant Director for Public Policy at SIECUS. "We are concerned that youth who may become sexually active are not included in the language but we do believe that this language reflects an end to funding for ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs." The 2009 budget cuts funding for the Community-Based Abstinence Education program by $14 million, but sex ed advocates hope for a total zeroing-out of all abstinence-only funding streams in the 2010 budget.
Advocates expect the budget itself to be released in April.
It’s good that in 2010 Medical Family Planning Expansion is included budget. We all know that we are struggling too hard to survive nowadays; especially we are still in recession. Many of us thinking of survival tips, or availing instant loans to provide our personal necessities, I remember last Easter my mom prepared ham for dinner and after that the leftovers where keep in fridge. Like my mom, some people are in search of leftover ham recipes. With enough recipes, leftover ham can add up to a week or two worth of food like ham casserole, ham soup, or the ubiquitous ham sandwich. You may end up not having to think about payday cash advance loans for groceries for a while. Make sure that pork was good and cooked – trichinosis is possible to get from undercooked ham and certain game animals. Those portions that you don't use right away, you should cube and freeze. It would almost be worth getting cash advances for some good leftover ham recipes . I just hope that our president should be working fast because many of us cannot handle this kind of hard life. God bless AMERICA!
