Those Damned Tentacles
We've seen how Bush appointees have politicized various agencies within the federal government. Examples abound of pushing the GOP agenda and pet causes over the performance of appropriate governmental functions: from the firing of US Attorneys who didn't toe the White House line to the muffling of scientists at NASA whose key findings on climate change were deemed inappropriate. Just as insidious, however, has been the effect on how federal grants to the states are doled out or withheld on state and local programs. An editorial in yesterday's Sacramento Bee gives a prime example of just how damaging those appointments can be.
The federal government wants any person seeking family planning services in California through the joint federal and state Medicaid program to show proof of citizenship. This is an astoundingly wrongheaded idea, even for the Bush administration. It's an anti-birth-control agenda masquerading as an anti-immigration agenda.
Why should anyone have to show a passport or birth certificate to get family planning services and access to birth control? This bureaucratic hassle is designed to drive people away from family planning services. Certainly, it will drive away low-income citizens. No doubt, it will also drive up unintended pregnancies among undocumented residents. Neither is a good outcome.
To see how ridiculous such a requirement is, consider this: California health officials estimate that the administrative costs of confirming the citizenship of people seeking family planning services are twice as much as simply examining them and giving them birth control.
California long has been a leader, through the Family PACT program, in providing family planning services at no cost to lower-income, working poor and underinsured people. The program serves about 1.5 million teens and adults. The idea is to reduce unintended pregnancies and save dollars in public expenses.
The state has received federal matching money for the Family PACT program through a family planning waiver since 1999. But now with the federal government's insistence on proof of citizenship, that federal funding is in doubt.
The state's waiver runs out April 30, and its renewal is under negotiation.
This fight is silly. California's waiver has never used federal funds to pay for services to undocumented residents. Those clients have received family planning through the Family PACT program at the state's expense. That should continue. [Emphasis added]
Whether anti-immigrant or anti-birth control (and I suspect both are involved), the stance taken by the federal government is a hideous one. California, like the other border states, has a huge immigrant population, both legal and illegal, and the state has properly determined that it is in California's best interests to provide such services. Since only the state's own money is used for those poor without proper documentation, the federal government shouldn't be concerned. Without the federal matching grant, however, none of the poor and the uninsured will have access to necessary family planning services. And that's the point, after all, isn't it?
What a shameful legacy George Walker Bush is building on the backs of the poor.
The federal government wants any person seeking family planning services in California through the joint federal and state Medicaid program to show proof of citizenship. This is an astoundingly wrongheaded idea, even for the Bush administration. It's an anti-birth-control agenda masquerading as an anti-immigration agenda.
Why should anyone have to show a passport or birth certificate to get family planning services and access to birth control? This bureaucratic hassle is designed to drive people away from family planning services. Certainly, it will drive away low-income citizens. No doubt, it will also drive up unintended pregnancies among undocumented residents. Neither is a good outcome.
To see how ridiculous such a requirement is, consider this: California health officials estimate that the administrative costs of confirming the citizenship of people seeking family planning services are twice as much as simply examining them and giving them birth control.
California long has been a leader, through the Family PACT program, in providing family planning services at no cost to lower-income, working poor and underinsured people. The program serves about 1.5 million teens and adults. The idea is to reduce unintended pregnancies and save dollars in public expenses.
The state has received federal matching money for the Family PACT program through a family planning waiver since 1999. But now with the federal government's insistence on proof of citizenship, that federal funding is in doubt.
The state's waiver runs out April 30, and its renewal is under negotiation.
This fight is silly. California's waiver has never used federal funds to pay for services to undocumented residents. Those clients have received family planning through the Family PACT program at the state's expense. That should continue. [Emphasis added]
Whether anti-immigrant or anti-birth control (and I suspect both are involved), the stance taken by the federal government is a hideous one. California, like the other border states, has a huge immigrant population, both legal and illegal, and the state has properly determined that it is in California's best interests to provide such services. Since only the state's own money is used for those poor without proper documentation, the federal government shouldn't be concerned. Without the federal matching grant, however, none of the poor and the uninsured will have access to necessary family planning services. And that's the point, after all, isn't it?
What a shameful legacy George Walker Bush is building on the backs of the poor.
Labels: California, Immigration, Separation of Church and State
posted by Diane at 3:52 AM
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