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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | August 20, 2015 03:06 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Paul Schemel |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Women’s Health Funding / Planned Parenthood |
| After the passage of the Affordable Care Act, many of the services which were previously funded by Federal funds earmarked for family planning services are now available with no co-payment requirement. This does not change the need for additional funding for women’s health services, but does require that the Commonwealth reprioritize where the funds are used. As a result, in the near future, I will be introducing legislation that will provide direction to the PA Department of Health as to how it must prioritize the allocation of public funds for family planning purposes. Effectively, this legislation will favor more conventional healthcare providers over unconventional providers, such as Planned Parenthood, when allocating public funds for women’s health. Currently, limited federal and state public funding exists for family planning and preventive health services for women. To ensure maximized use of funding, my legislation will prioritize the distribution to the most efficient point-of-service health care providers and encourage complete medical records for all services provided to women. Under my proposal, public entities will receive the highest priority for receiving such funds, followed by non-public hospitals and federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and non-public health providers that have their primary purpose as the provision of primary health care. Women’s health services are considered “primary health care” and such services should be encouraged to be provided by those health care professionals who participate in electronic health records and integrated health systems. This legislation is focused on improving the quality of health care for women and will not reduce the level of public funding allocated for women’s health services. I hope you will join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation. |
Introduced as HB1623