Planned Parenthood faces unexpected challenge from Obamacare

Angered by videos in which Planned Parenthood officials discussed compensation for providing fetal tissue from abortions, Republicans in Congress are again demanding an end to government funding for the nearly 100-year-old provider of women’s health services.

 

Away from the headlines, however, the group is facing other major challenges, including one from a far different source: the Affordable Care Act, which it avidly supports.

 

Many formerly uninsured women who once depended on Planned Parenthood for low-cost access to birth control, abortions and other reproductive healthcare have gotten coverage under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, making them less reliant on the organisation’s 700 clinics.

 

In many states, Planned Parenthood is losing clients as newly insured patients turn to medical providers included in their health plan’s networks, according to data provided to Reuters and interviews with more than two dozen of its affiliates.

 

“Some people relied on us because they were uninsured prior to the Affordable Care Act. Now they can go anywhere for care, and some of them have been,” said Lori Carpentier, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan, which expects to treat 58,000 patients in 2015, down about 15 percent from the 68,000 it treated in fiscal 2012, before major parts of the law went into effect.

 

The ACA has also brought some benefits to the organisation, its leaders say. In interviews, affiliates all reported a significantly larger percentage of insured visitors among their remaining patients. Some locations – including Ohio, New York City, Chicago and the Northwest – are even adding clients as they expand services to better compete for women with medical coverage.

 

Read More: Insight – Planned Parenthood faces unexpected challenge from Obamacare | Reuters

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