An Ingenoius System for Milking Taxpayers

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Michael Smith 

Monday, February 26, 2022.

 

Planned Parenthood receives tens of millions of dollars in government funds through Title X of the Public Health Service Act. But Title X funds is not the only source of governmental funding for Planned Parenthood. They also receive funding under Title V (the Maternal and Child Health program of the Social Security Act), as well as funding from Title XIX (Medicaid), and Title XX (the Social Services program under the Social Security Act). 

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Planned Parenthood says that 80 percent of the women who visit its clinics are economically disadvantaged or indigent and therefore need government funding. However, while it is true that taxpayers foot the bill for up to 80 percent of all client visits to Planned Parenthood, it is not accurate to say that all of these clients are truly needy. Though Planned Parenthood did not write these laws, some would say that Planned Parenthood is "milking taxpayers " by taking advantage of current laws to line their pockets with taxpayer funds that are intended to go to the truly needy.

 

In fact, it is estimated that 90% to 95% of all non-Medicaid clients who receive government assistance for a visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic are not "needy," but willing and able to pay for their visit. An analysis of six thousand randomly selected client visits to Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas supports this conclusion, as reported by author Robert H. Ruff (Aborting Planned Parenthood).

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How is this possible? Title XX law states that parental income is not to be a factor when deciding whether or not that person qualifies for government assistance. What might surprise most people is that the Title XX program mandates no eligibility requirements whatsoever. The federal government recommends that Title XX funds be used for the truly poor, but imposes no such requirement.  

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As an example, an 18 year old could be a full-time college student that has a part-time job that earns $250.00 per week. Her parents could be sending her $600 per month for food, as well as pay her tuition directly to the university. She may be wearing expensive jewelry, has an Gucci purse, the latest iPhone and is wearing expensive clothing. She my state that her father is a banker and earns $130,000 a year, and her mother is part-time employed with an income of $37,000 a year. Since parental income is not to be a determining factor, this college student would qualify for Title XX government assistance and assessed a co-pay of 20%. As author Robert H. Ruff explains, "Title XX eligibility is therefore determined at the clinic level, by clinic personnel, in accordance with state guidelines, if any. But state guidelines are usually designed to ensure that the clinic can qualify virtually anyone for Title XX funding" How ironic, as Ruff concludes, that struggling families who can't afford Gucci purses, expensive jewerly, or the latest fashions, much less college educations, are being forced, under lax Title XX regulations, "to pay for wealthy girls to visit Planned Parenthood."

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To "fix" this problem, we need to make sure state guidelines are written to make sure that only the truly needy are able to receive Title XX assistance. We also need to ask both our Congressional Representatives and Senators in Washington, DC, to pass stricter Title XX guidelines to keep tax-exempt corporations like Planned Parenthood from exploiting.  

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