Medicaid patients seeking services at Planned Parenthood centers in northern New England could lose access to care, as the new federal spending bill bars Medicaid payments to abortion providers.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which services patients in New Hampshire, could continue to care for Medicaid patients, but they won’t be paid by the government for any services they offer, under the Republican-backed bill.
Planned Parenthood serves about 8,000 Medicaid patients each year in Northern New England, according to the organization. One in five of those people are covered by Medicaid in New Hampshire. In addition to abortions, the organization provides a range of health services, including preventative care screenings, primary care, birth control, menopause care and vasectomy care.
A federal judge in Massachusetts has issued a temporary pause on the ban on Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood until July 21, when a hearing is scheduled on a potential longer pause. But officials with Planned Parenthood say the uncertainty of the funding situation puts them in a tough spot.
Nicole Clegg, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said the funding cut is a move to ban abortions — but it does more than that.
“Passing the reconciliation bill shows that they're willing to do whatever it takes to achieve this goal, even if it means jeopardizing the health and lives of our community's most vulnerable,” Clegg said. “Without access to the health care that Planned Parenthood provides to Medicaid patients, cancers will go undetected, STIs will be left untreated, and unplanned pregnancies will rise.”
For New Hampshire, loss of Medicaid reimbursement would add further financial complications. Planned Parenthood lost Title X funding earlier this year in April when the Trump administration issued a freeze.
Kayla Montgomery, vice president of public affairs for the New Hampshire chapter of Planned Parenthood, said it’s not the first time this has happened. In 2011, the state Executive Council prevented the state’s Planned Parenthood chapter from receiving the grant.
“We've been in the program since its inception,” Montgomery said. “That was the first time ever that we had been removed from the program. Kind of caught everyone by surprise.”
But Montgomery said then Gov. Maggie Hassan worked with the Obama administration to make Planned Parenthood a direct grantee for the state, which is how it’s operated since. It means New Hampshire has two groups that receive Title X: the state and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. Individual medical providers can also apply to use those funds.
In 2019, during Trump’s first term, the administration prevented any medical providers that offer abortion services from receiving Title X funding nationwide under a domestic gag rule. If Planned Parenthood of Northern New England received funds from the grant, it wouldn’t be allowed to provide or refer patients for abortion services. The organization decided to stop receiving the funds in order to continue to provide those services to their patients.
When the Biden administration took office in January 2021, they almost immediately reversed the Trump provision to Title X in April of that year.
Montgomery said this new law on Medicaid reimbursement complicates the finances for the state’s Planned Parenthood clinics.
“Unfortunately, our Medicaid reimbursement rates in New Hampshire are already one of the lowest in the region,” Montgomery said. “We were hoping to see higher Medicaid reimbursement rates with this budget, but they stayed flat. So it's a tremendous, tremendous loss for New Hampshire, for Planned Parenthood New Hampshire.”
One example, Montgomery said: an IUD insertion can be reimbursed for nearly double the amount in Maine than it would in New Hampshire.
“It's really hard for providers, especially nursing homes and treatment facilities, to stay open because the reimbursement rates are so low and you could just go over the border in Vermont or Massachusetts or Maine and be able to provide that care and actually be reimbursed at a higher rate, that you can afford to retain your staff and do things like that,” Montgomery said.
If the temporary block against the cut to Medicaid reimbursement does not extend past 14 days, Planned Parenthood will have to source millions of dollars in funding from donors and patients that seek their services, leaders with the organization said.
“Healthcare should not be run by philanthropy,” Montgomery said. “We're talking about the state not having any sort of stake in the ground on public health when it comes to the biggest provider of sexual reproductive health in the state is a real shame, because the state should have a stake here.”
