Obamacare is working at family planning clinics, but that doesn't mean they don't need funding

More visits to family planning clinics are now covered by insurance since Obamacare, the Guttmacher Institute finds, but a significant portion of patients are still uninsured. That means that continued funding of the Title X program—including Planned Parenthood—as well as Medicaid expansion are still critical.

Following the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more family planning visits at a group of 32 safety-net centers supported by the Title X program are covered by insurance, according to a new Guttmacher analysis. The overall proportion of uninsured client visits at these centers decreased from 41% during the last three quarters of 2013 to 36% during that same period in 2014, driven by increases in visits paid for by both Medicaid and by private insurance. […]

“While not nationally representative, we believe these findings are a very good indicator that—as intended—the ACA is making health coverage more accessible and more usable to more people,” says Kinsey Hasstedt, lead author of the new analysis. “Notably, two-thirds of the participating health centers saw a decrease in the proportion of uninsured family planning visits.” […]

“Our investigation once again confirms that Title X is a hugely important program, and that the nationwide network of safety-net family planning centers it supports is a vital source of care for millions,” says Hasstedt. “This is true not only for the growing proportion of clients who have insurance coverage for their visits, but especially for the many clients who continue to lack coverage for the care they need.”

So it's great that Obamacare is working the way it's supposed to, and more people using these safety net clinics have insurance. But that doesn't make these clinics any less critical. In fact, it shows "that family planning centers continue to play a critical role in providing access to care. Visits to these sites in 2014 were almost on par with pre-ACA levels." Visits weren't down because people found other providers, but because of other factors: more women are using long-term birth control methods that requirer fewer visits; some of the clinics provide care in schools, so fewer young women came to them; preventive care guidelines have changed necessitating fewer annual visits. In fact, many people consider these clinics their healthcare home—even those newly insured want to continue to get their care with the provider that they're used to.

Title X clinics—including Planned Parenthood—offer access to health care that might not be available otherwise. So the current attacks on Planned Parenthood—including states pulling Medicaid money out are really jeopardizing health care, and for no good reason since most of the clinics don't participate in what these lawmakers object to—facilitating donation of fetal tissue from abortions.

Title X funding is in nearly as much jeopardy as Planned Parenthood funding from the Republican Congress. Which reiterates one thing: the GOP War on Women is alive and well. So when Jeb! Bush says "I'm not sure we need half a billion dollars for women's health issues," that's what he really means. They don't think money on women's health is necessary.