Written by Michael Tennant
The Obama administration has found yet another way to funnel taxpayer dollars to one of its favorite organizations. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) just awarded three Planned Parenthood branches over $655,000 to serve as ObamaCare “navigators.”On August 15, HHS announced that it would be awarding $67 million to 105 organizations to help Americans negotiate the labyrinthine process of applying for insurance on state exchanges and determining whether they are eligible for Medicaid or other subsidies. This was $13 million more than had originally been slated for navigators. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the extra cash was “borrowed ... from money originally targeted for disease prevention efforts,” indicating that the administration is more concerned with getting people enrolled in subsidized insurance than it is with preventing disease. Then again, as Human Events’ John Hayward remarked, “ObamaCare has never been about the health of anything except Big Government.”
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| Warren Buffett's Abortion Funding |
Recipients of the navigator grants include community organizations, healthcare providers, business groups — and Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which operates in Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, will be getting $214,427 from HHS; the group plans to have navigators spread across the Hawkeye State.
Intermountain Planned Parenthood, or Planned Parenthood of Montana, will receive $295,604 “to establish the Montana Marketplace Connection to assist consumers in navigating the Montana Marketplace.”
And Planned Parenthood of Northern New England will be given $145,161 to help New Hampshire residents navigate their state’s health insurance system.
That isn’t the only taxpayer money Planned Parenthood will be getting to help spread the word about ObamaCare. States that have set up their own exchanges also need to get people to use them and are shoveling money into interest groups’ pockets to assist in this endeavor. Earlier this week the District of Columbia’s exchange awarded $6.4 million in grants for navigators, including $375,000 to Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
“The federal funding of abortion providers like Planned Parenthood is a serious problem in our country, and one that I have been fighting since I arrived in Congress,” Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) said in a statement. “This grant announcement is a sad reminder that despite assurances from the President when the law was passed, Obamacare will in fact give taxpayer money to abortion providers.”
According to the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, Planned Parenthood has performed nearly one million abortions over the last three reported years — about one every 95 seconds. In 2011, the last reported year, abortion accounted for 92 percent of the organization’s pregnancy services, with 11 percent of all clients killing their unborn babies that year. Planned Parenthood’s 2011-2012 report states that it received $542.4 million in government grants and reimbursements, including Medicaid payments, during that fiscal year.
The abortion giant stands to make oodles more from ObamaCare, which is why it pushed hard for the law’s passage and is now at the forefront of efforts to get people to enroll in the exchanges. Politico reported in June:
Planned Parenthood is diving into a new area of education, not without its own controversy: Obamacare.
The group’s more than 750 health centers across the country will be promoting the health law and helping women find out about new coverage options for themselves and their families before — and after — enrollment begins Oct. 1. They’re creating everything from refrigerator magnets to online apps that help people enroll in a health plan. Some affiliates will be applying to become official government-funded “navigators” to give people more hands-on help through the signup process.
Planned Parenthood says its health centers see nearly 3 million patients a year, many of them using the clinics as their primary point of care. More than nine out 10 are under age 40. About half are uninsured.
The group’s more than 750 health centers across the country will be promoting the health law and helping women find out about new coverage options for themselves and their families before — and after — enrollment begins Oct. 1. They’re creating everything from refrigerator magnets to online apps that help people enroll in a health plan. Some affiliates will be applying to become official government-funded “navigators” to give people more hands-on help through the signup process.
Planned Parenthood says its health centers see nearly 3 million patients a year, many of them using the clinics as their primary point of care. More than nine out 10 are under age 40. About half are uninsured.
One local Planned Parenthood CEO told Politico that “nearly all of the 100,000 patients his health centers serve lack insurance, and he estimates about 75,000 will be eligible for Medicaid under the law’s expansion.” Most others, being low-income women, will be eligible for subsidies for the purchase of private insurance. Either way, Planned Parenthood wins because it will now be reimbursed — at taxpayer expense — for services it was previously providing for free or nominal fees… Read more @TNA
