Short-sighted budget cuts will cost women plenty

Once again, Michigan lawmakers are wrangling with the state budget, and family planning services, including birth control and cancer screening, are being threatened with a huge budget cut. Sadly, this is all part of the legislative negotiating process to establish a budget, but we feel strongly that women’s health needs shouldn’t be used as a bargaining chip.

 

UPDATE: On March 25, 2008, the Michigan Senate passed Senate Bill 1094 Substitute S-1, which rolls all the funding for the Healthy Michigan Fund, the state’s health care safety net, into one lump sum and cuts 40% of the total.

 

Urge your Representative to restore these vital funds as the budget is finalized. Family planning actually saves the state money; every dollar spent saves the state three dollars in other services resulting from an unintended pregnancy. Further cuts to family planning services will result in fewer screenings for cervical cancer and untreated STDs.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Please restore funding for the Healthy Michigan Fund and increase family planning funding

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

I urge you to restore full funding to the Healthy Michigan Fund as this budget is finalized.

Family planning actually saves taxpayer money. Every dollar spent on family planning saves an estimated three dollars in Medicaid costs for pregnancy related and newborn care in the first year alone.

The best way to prevent unintended pregnancies and make abortion rare is to make sure Michigan citizens have the information about and access to family planning services. Cutting the Healthy Michigan Fund will lead to higher Medicaid costs and a loss of federal dollars for family planning related health care costs, as well as for a variety of other prevention based programs.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
March 24, 2008


Background Information

Michigan continues to face a serious budget crisis. Our lawmakers are being short-sighted when they consider slashing the Healthy Michigan Fund by 40 percent, leaving vulnerable women and their families — the patients that we serve — without access to family planning services, maternal and child health care, cancer screening and other preventive health care. It's just wrong to balance the budget on the backs of women, children and families.

Facing severe budget shortfalls, family planning providers may be forced to provide fewer services, shorter hours or even close health centers, leaving patients with fewer options and higher costs. Many Michigan women and men depend on the family planning funding that the government provides for their basic health care.

Michigan's Healthy Michigan Fund is the cornerstone of the state's health care safety net. Currently the Senate is debating whether to make massive cuts to this program that will surely take away vital services from tens of thousands of Michigan residents.

Family planning prevents unintended pregnancy and reduces the number of abortions, infant mortalities, low birth weight babies and sexually transmitted infections by allowing people to make informed choices about the number, spacing and timing of their pregnancies and helping them maintain their reproductive health.

As the Michigan Legislature debates solutions to the fiscal year 2008-2009 budget, it is important that they receive a consistent and urgent message from constituents who are concerned about maintaining critical public services and a high quality of life in Michigan.

 

Tell your Representative that further cuts in programs and services are not sustainable and that Michigan's Healthy Michigan Fund must be restored.