Speaking of the Lone Star State, this is already causing controvery:

Phase-out of women’s program to begin

By Jason Embry | Thursday, March 15, 2012, 05:51 PM

Federal officials asked the state Thursday to start phasing out a program that provides health care for more than 100,000 low-income women.

The Women’s Health Program, which is part of Medicaid and is largely paid for with federal money, provides Pap smears, breast exams, birth control and other services to poor, uninsured women between the ages of 18 and 44. A newly enforced state law says money for the program cannot go to providers that are affiliated with abortion providers. That law was in large part an effort to keep tax dollars from going to Planned Parenthood, even though the clinics participating in the program are legally separated from those that provide abortions.

Federal law, however, says women should be able to select their own caregivers. So federal officials gave the state formal notice Thursday that funding for the program will end, and they asked the state to submit a formal plan for phasing out the program so that services are not immediately cut off.

“Neither the federal government nor the state government are permitted to stop people from getting services from their trusted source of care, as long as the provider is qualified to provide the service and the provider participates in the Medicaid program,” said Cindy Mann, director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “Texas has decided to implement a new rule which is contrary to this freedom-of-choice provision.”

Numerous other clinics and providers treat women enrolled in the Women’s Health Program. But almost half of all services under the program last year were provided by clinics that Texas now wants to exclude, Mann said in a letter to state officials.

The full phase-out of the Women’s Health Program could last until the end of 2012. The state has until April 16 to submit a phase-out plan to the federal government. Then, for three months, the state would identify other Medicaid programs that participants may be eligible for and start the process of notifying patients and referring them to other providers. The state could also use this three-month period to move to a new program that would be entirely state funded. Gov. Rick Perry has said he supports a state-funded program if the current Women’s Health Program disappears. (The federal government is scheduled to pick up about $30 million of the program’s costs this year, with the state paying about $3.3 million.)

If the state does not transfer the women to another program in that first three months, it would get another six months to stop enrollment and help existing clients find other care.

Perry has said he wants to find money for the state program in other areas of the state’s budget for health and human services.

“Texans send a substantial amount of our tax dollars to Washington, D.C., and it is unconscionable that the Obama Administration has essentially told Texas it will send our tax dollars back to fund this program only if we violate state law and include its pro-abortion allies,” Perry said Thursday.

If the state can find the money, it can easily transfer the services to its own program, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

“We’ll use all the same processes to enroll women, pay providers, etc.,” Goodman said. “The source of the funding will just change from a mix of state and federal funds to all state funds. Making that change is really the easiest part of the process.”