The number of clients served by the state's family planning budget dropped while the cost of serving those clients increased in the 2012 fiscal year, since Planned Parenthood is no longer in the picture. Shocking, I know. According to an article from the Austin Chronicle from Friday, November 30, this is the case. The state served only 75, 160 family clients during the FY2012. This 63% decrease is accompanied by a 15% increase in the cost per client. These numbers seem to indicate that the situation is worse than it originally appeared earlier in the year.
As a result of the new funding matrix, which intentionally excluded Planned Parenthood, the program was shut out of any Title X funding. Christine Mann, the spokeswoman for the Department of State Health Services, claims that agencies have reduced their capacities, but infrastructure costs have not decreased at the same rate, producing the 63% decrease in clients with the 15% increase in cost. She says that it should resolve itself over time and return to previous levels.
On the contrary, Fran Hagerty, CEO of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, says that when the "bottom tier" of the matrix, aka Planned Parenthood, has been removed, the most expensive and least efficient providers will be the most funded. The numbers provided by the DSHS indicate that the state's preferred providers appear to be incapable of providing services for the many women that will be left without access to the provider of their choice.
Like I said in my first post, what does the State of Texas think they're helping by getting rid of Planned Parenthood? Yes, a small percentage of what Planned Parenthood does includes abortions, but anyone can see that Planned Parenthood is necessary to provide family planning services for many women in Texas.
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