Urge The Governor To Sign SB 94 - 10/11/07

If you haven't called the Governor yet, make a call today to show your support of SB 94, critical piece of legislation that would increase reimbursement rates for vital family planning services and increase access to time-sensitive care for low-income women throughout the state. The situation in California requires immediate action. Every month, Planned Parenthood clinics statewide turn away more than 10,000 patients because of insufficient reimbursement from the state. He has until Sunday, October 14 to sign the bill, so keep the calls coming!

Making a call is quick and easy. It's all automated, so you don't have to talk with anybody. Here are the directions:

Governor's office: (916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English
Press 5 for Senate Bills
Press 5 for SB 94
Press 1 to support

And here is an article from North Gate News in Berkeley highlighting the necessity to have SB 94 signed into law:

North Gate News: Reporting UC Berkeley School of Journalism
Clinic Workers Urge Governor to Increase Family Planning Funds

Anna Belle Peevey, October 3, 2007 at 4:09 pm

SAN FRANCISCO — Within the next two weeks, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will make a decision that could affect thousands of women seeking family planning services.

SB-94, one of the many bills now on his desk awaiting approval, would increase Medi-Cal funds for family planning for the first time in 20 years.

“You’re having folks pay for services with 1987 money that have 2007 costs,” said Chris Lee, Vice President for Public Policy for Planned Parenthood Shasta-Diablo, at a rally held today in San Francisco urging the Governor to sign the bill. Although Medi-Cal reimbursement rates have remained the same for two decades, the cost of providing family planning services has increased as much as 300 percent.

Maya Ingram, public policy director for Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, said California family planning service providers turn away 10,000 patients each month because they don’t have the funds to staff their clinics.

“We’ve been pushing for this year after year, and there’s always some push back because the state lacks funds,” Ingram said about the bill. “We’re at a critical stage now.”

The bill, subtitled Medi-Cal Reimbursement Rates, would provide $3.2 million in state Medi-Cal funds for family planning office visits. California would receive an additional $9 million in matching federal funds.

Currently, California receives nine federal dollars for every dollar the state spends on family planning. But for every dollar a clinic bills Medi-Cal, the state reimburses at 50 percent, and clinics use other funding to cover the remaining half. With SB 94, the reimbursement rate to family planning providers would increase to 80%.

Heather Saunders Estes, CEO of Planned Parenthood Shasta-Diablo, said at the rally today that family planning programs are increasingly strained by lack of funding.

“We are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” she said. “The system has been eroding for quite a while. Now it’s breaking.”
Estes said Planned Parenthood has been unable to fund a clinic in El Cerrito because the funds aren’t there, and that existing HIV-testing programs would likely be terminated if the $3.2 million doesn’t go through.

Planned Parenthood is not the only family planning provider that would be affected by this new bill. Every clinic that receives Medi-Cal patients for family planning would see a boost in the services it is able to provide. Because these clinics must compete for nurse practitioners with hospitals that offer 20 percent more in annual salaries, clinics are having a difficult time filling positions.

“We have two positions open right now,” said Leslie Barron-Johnson, Vice President of Client Services for Shasta-Diablo Planned Parenthood. “That’s 80 hours a week of possible time for patients.”

Supporters say that Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment (PACT), California’s Medi-Cal funded family planning program, has saved the state more than $2 billion in medical and social service costs through the prevention of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. And an evaluation by San Francisco Family PACT says every dollar spent on family planning saves the state $5.33 on social welfare costs down the road.

Carol Hogan, spokesperson for the California Catholic Conference, called that statistic “amazingly callous and utilitarian.” Referring to a letter she wrote to the Governor urging him not to sign SB94, she said, “In other words, paying to prevent a birth is more cost-effective than helping the child’s mother give birth and care for it.” Hogan said State Senator Sheila Kuehl, the author of the bill, performed a common legislative action the day before the bill went to a vote — by “gutting and amending” at the last minute, she changed the language to include family planning services.

Lee said the language was added at the last minute because the legislators “saw this was something left out of the 2008 budget and shouldn’t have been, because it brings money back to the state.” Lee and other supporters at the rally maintain that this is about emphasizing preventative care. Said Lee, “It’s the one program that makes fiscal sense.”