Testimony to Oppose Dismantling the Healthy Women Program
TESTIMONY OF KELDA HELEN ROYS
ON BEHALF OF NARAL PRO-CHOICE WISCONSIN
OPPOSING 2006 AB 991/SB 552, TO DISMANTLE THE HEALTHY WOMEN PROGRAM
To: Wisconsin State Assembly Committee on Family Law;
Senate Committee for Review of Administrative Rules
From: Kelda Helen Roys, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin
Re: Opposition to AB 991/SB 552, to dismantle the Healthy Women Program
Date: February 14, 2006
Good afternoon. On behalf of our over 30,000 statewide members, I thank the committee for the opportunity to testify against AB 991/SB 552, the proposal to dismantle Wisconsin’s Healthy Women Program.
The program is one of the state’s – and the nation’s – most successful health care programs. This is true both in terms of direct and indirect monetary savings for taxpayers, and in terms of creating positive health outcomes for patients.
The Healthy Women Program, a Medicaid waiver program, provides a wide variety of preventative, basic health care services to the lowest-income women in our state. Services include screening for cervical and breast cancer, STI testing and treatment, and access to contraceptives and family planning information. The program keeps women and families healthy and saves taxpayers money by focusing on prevention and early detection. The Healthy Women Program has made it possible for the poorest women to get tested and treated for disease, and to prevent unintended pregnancy and reduce the need for abortion.
Currently, over 64,000 Wisconsin women receive basic medical care under this program – and 90% of the funding is provided by the federal government.
Yet, astonishingly, this successful commonsense program, which was put into place by Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, is being attacked because of a tiny part of it. This part helps prevent unintended pregnancy for women who are 15 to 17 years old by giving the information about and access to birth control.
Proponents of the bill before us have made no mention of the fact that trying to exclude older teens from the program would jeopardize the whole program. A key purpose of the program is to prevent teen pregnancy, and just to exclude the very population who is most vulnerable, the sponsors are willing to deprive all the women 18 to 45 of this very basic, important care. By modifying a Medicaid block grant to exclude one of the key target populations – older teens – the state will be out of compliance, and Wisconsin could be denied an estimated $10.1 million dollars which would otherwise come into the state in 2006, and more in each passing year.
According to reports, the Healthy Women Program saves Wisconsin taxpayers over $13 million every single year. Even if the remaining program were continued, a 2004 fiscal estimate concluded that excluding 15 to 17 year olds from the program would result in a
cost of $12.7 million over 5 years, and an additional 3,300 teen births. We also know that because half of unintended pregnancies end in abortion, this bill will result in thousands of abortions.
When Milwaukee has some of the highest teen pregnancy, chlamydia, and other STI rates in the nation, we should be expanding the Healthy Women Program, not threatening and dismantling it.
This program would not only deny young women access to birth control – which can also be crucial for treating many serious health conditions – but would eliminate their ability to receive any health care under the Healthy Women Program. That means that poor teens will not be able to be given pap smears, taught to give breast self-exams to detect cancer, or be tested or treated for STIs. That means infections that could be easily treated with antibiotics will go undetected, and could cause serious health problems, including sterility, cancer, or even death. It also means that infections will be passed on to others, worsening Wisconsin’s public health crisis.
We know from study after study that access to birth control does not encourage sexual activity – in fact, giving teens the facts about sex and access to health care, actually empowers them to make healthy choices, including delaying sexual activity.
NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin believes in a culture of freedom and personal responsibility. That means searching for commonsense, prevention-based solutions to the problem of unintended pregnancy. Preventative health care services are cost-effective and necessary to preserving the lives and futures of those young people – our teens – that we care so much about. Denying them health care simply because we disapprove of them having access to contraception is counterproductive and cruel.
We know this bill will cost taxpayers millions, jeopardize health care for all adult Healthy Women Program participants, increase disease and infections, and cause thousands more teen births and abortions.
If there was ever common ground to be found in the divisive debate over a woman’s right to choose, contraception and family planning should be it.
Wisconsin cannot afford this bill to dismantle the Healthy Women Program – our taxpayers, our patients, and our teens cannot bear the cost. We respectfully ask the Committees to vote against this destructive, irresponsible bill.
Contact: Kelda Helen Roys, kelda@prochoicewisconsin.org, 608-213-4502
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