Junk letter from perry on WHP and funding
The following letter came to me as I had sent a protest letter thru PP. perry sucks as does his evil minions in the state house.
April 4, 2012
Dear Fellow Texan:
Thank you for writing to the Office of the Governor.
As you may know by now, the services provided by the Women’s Health Program (WHP) are not going away. Governor Perry has instructed Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Thomas Suehs to work with legislative leadership to identify sources of state funding in the existing budget to continue providing the services upon which these women depend.
The debate about WHP has never been about the program itself. As Governor Perry wrote to President Obama, WHP is “a cost-effective Texas solution that connects more than 100,000 low-income women to vital health and wellness services each year.”
Rather, this is an issue about the rule of law, as well as Texas’ right to decide on its own which providers are qualified to provide care to Texas women, and which providers are eligible to receive our hard-earned tax dollars.
Under federal law, Washington already leaves it to state leaders to administer the Medicaid program and set criteria for qualified providers. Texas has a law in place that leaves abortion providers and their affiliates ineligible for WHP, and it is not within anyone’s discretion to simply ignore that law, as Washington would prefer.
Texas is well prepared to handle the needs of WHP participants, even without organizations like Planned Parenthood, which itself represented less than 2 percent of the more than 2,500 providers across Texas. In fact, nearly 80 percent of WHP participants were already going to a provider other than Planned Parenthood. These facts demonstrate just how ridiculous it is that Washington is ending WHP funding out of concern for such a limited number of providers.
If you wish to help preserve federal funding for this important program, you may wish to contact President Obama and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and express your concerns directly about their decision to cut funding.
Governor Perry remains confident Washington’s decision will be reversed, either by Congress or the courts. Until that time, Texas will continue providing care to Texas women.
Please let us know if we can be of assistance in the future.
Sincerely,
Dede Keith
Constituent Communication Division
Office of the Governor
DK:mta
