Planned Parenthood using and abusing Medicaid

So I was thinking about what I should do a blog about today and in light of the discussions revolving around Planned Parenthood funding and the Federal Government troubles lately, I decided to shine a little light onto an issue I witnessed all the time at the clinic I worked at in Washington. I do not want to portray that I know all the state laws, but I do know that in Washington, Medicaid will be given when you are pregnant and financially needy whether it is for an abortion, or for prenatal care. Medicaid will cover 100% of the abortion and will be expidited if you have your "procedure" scheduled allready before you apply. This probably doesn't sound that profound, so I will break it down to you in the type of numbers I saw at the clinic.

• Two days of surgery a week, 30 patients each day. Out of those 30 at least 20 will most likely be on medicaid, from what I witnessed. Average cost of an in-clinic procedure starts at $1000 (when I worked there) and went higher when your gestation was higher. So here is what that looks like in figures for one single clinic: 20 medicaid patients x $1000 fee = $20,000. $20,000 per one day of surgery in Medicaid expense. 2 days of surgery a week, $40,000. Now think on a larger scale, 52 weeks a year x $40,000= $2,080,000.


• $2,080,000 in medicaid billed abortions per year for just ONE CLINIC.


• Now the scary thought and theory is that if the medicaid laws in every state allowed this, and there was just one clinic in every state, (varies, some have none, some have many), the total could be even as high as 50 states x $2,080,000= $104,000,000 or higher due to states with many clinics.


• $104,000,000 could be billed to medicaid for abortions.

That is a huge amount of money just in abortions being billed to medicaid. We talk all the time about the choice of smokers and obese people raising the cost of insurance and costing states money. So when we talk about women and men who are making the choice to be sexually active, knowing the potential outcome just like a smoker or obese person, why do we say it is only her choice and no one else's. Why is it if I pick up a pack of Camel's, or an extra big mac, it is suddenly the right of everyone else to be concerned about what my health care is going to cost, but if it an abortion, it is suddenly no one's business? The couple did make a choice. They chose to be sexually active.

The whole year I worked at the clinic, I only saw a handful of women who were pregnant from cases of rape, abuse, incest, or similar tragedies. The majority of reasoning was "I am overwhelmed with what is going on in my life allready", or "I don't want my (spouse) to know about my affair".

It doesn't seem like a good enough reason to commit murder.

$104,000,000 is a huge amount of money, something that deserves some thought as well.