Health Affairs Blog: How Texas lawmakers continue to undermine women’s health - Guttmacher
Guttmacher Institute
For years, Texas has had the highest proportion of uninsured individuals overall, and for adult women specifically, of any state. In 2013, one in five Texans had no health insurance of any kind, including 2.1 million adult women.
Beyond limited access to health coverage, Texas consistently has lackluster health indicators—particularly with regard to sexual and reproductive health care. Yet, at seemingly every turn, state lawmakers continue to implement neglectful, or even hostile, policies that hinder access to affordable sexual and reproductive health care and information, especially among low-income Texas women and teens.
Those policies include the state’s ongoing refusal to adopt the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of full-benefit Medicaid; its frequent attacks on family planning funding and providers; its dogged insistence on an abstinence-only approach to sex education; and its escalating restrictions on access to abortion.
Indeed, a recent study found that 55% of Texas women surveyed now face at least one barrier to reproductive health care, including affordability of services and access to providers with whom they feel comfortable.
Two recent developments highlight the state’s misguided approach.
Family Planning Access
Recently released data from the state documents the declining effectiveness of the Texas Women’s Health Program. The program was established in 2007 as a joint state-federal effort, when Texas joined about half the states in expanding Medicaid eligibility specifically for family planning services for low-income women not otherwise eligible for Medicaid.
In 2011, however, the state took several major steps to reverse course, including a move to ban any health centers from participating in the program if the center provides abortion or is associated with a provider that does. This decision to unlawfully discriminate against qualified providers ultimately resulted in the state forgoing significant federal financial support for the program—losing $9 for every $1 dollar that the state would spend.
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