Hundreds of thousands of women in this state rely on public health departments and Medicaid for primary health care during their reproductive years, including family planning, prenatal care, and childbirth and delivery.  These programs are endangered by proposed funding cuts.

 

The Governor has ordered across-the-board cuts of 2.5% to the current budget and 5% cuts to the budget beginning July 1.  No area of government spending has been protected from these cuts, but health and social services have been hit hardest.  On top of a decade of declining spending within the Department of Human Resources (DHR) and cuts exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars to DHR and the Department of Community Health (Medicaid) last year, these cuts threaten or eliminate provision of essential health and social services for our most vulnerable populations – people with chronic illnesses, the elderly, pregnant women, children and people with disabilities.  Combined with the weak economy and high unemployment the need for health and social services is particularly high right now.

 

Budgets for fiscal year 2004 and 2005 passed by the Board of DCH and DHR  propose to make cuts exceeding $260 Million!   Many of these cuts are short sighted -- they cut preventive care and inexpensive early interventions that will only lead to human suffering and much more expensive and traumatic public expenditures down the road.  Furthermore, the $160 million in DCH cuts alone means Georgia will pass up more than  $281 Million in federal funds  – more than all the cuts in both departments.

 

Planned Parenthood of Georgia is concerned about these devastating cuts, specifically: 

·        Reduction of 1.2 million dollars to family planning services

·        Virtual elimination of the state’s Adolescent Health and Youth Development Program including 39 Teen Centers across the state

 

Family planning services provide critical healthcare to thousands of Georgia women each year.  Even under current funding levels Georgia serves fewer than 50% of poor women seeking family planning services.  These proposed cuts will mean that about 64,000 additional women in Georgia will no longer have access to family planning services. 

 

39 teen centers serve over 206,000 adolescents at greatest risk with supports like leadership opportunities, tutoring, counseling and medical services identified and leveraged through local collaborative partnerships. While each Teen Center is unique, all are dedicated to engaging youth in developing effective life skills, making responsible behavioral choices, succeeding in school, and forging caring relationships with their parents and other adults.  

 

Counties where Teen Centers are in jeopardy: Bartow, Bibb, Bulloch, Carroll, Chatham, Clarke, Clayton, Cobb, Coffee, Coweta, Crisp, DeKalb (3), Dougherty, Douglas, Floyd, Fulton (3), Gwinnett (2), Hall, Hancock, Houston, Laurens, Liberty, Lowndes, Mitchell, Muscogee, Richmond, Spalding, Sumter, Thomas, Tift, Troup, Walker, Ware, Whitfield.

 

Where does the DHR budget proposal go from here? Governor Perdue can change the DHR’s proposed fiscal year 2004 and fiscal year 2005 spending plans before presenting it to the Georgia General Assembly in January.  At that time, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will have the opportunity to draft and present alternative budget plans to the legislature.  Once adopted, the Governor’s authority to veto specific budget line items still gives him the last word.