AS A FORMER RHODES SCHOLAR, GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL ISN’T VERY SMART
There are reasons that Bobby
Jindal is polling at 0% as a presidential candidate.
I have a big
problem in understanding how a governor that has been anything but a supporter
of his constituents, thinks he should run for US president?
As an example,
the Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal, is one of those Republican presidential
wannabees. However, here are a few of
his state’s unfortunate statistics:
·
The state has
no idea for where to send the 5,200 low-income patients who will lose access to
reproductive health services if the state is successful at cutting off Medicaid
funding for Planned Parenthood, as Governor Bobby Jindal wants.
·
Governor
Jindal wants to de-fund Planned Parenthood because of his perception of their
providing abortions. But no government
funded money is used for abortions, and 97% of their spending is for low-income
women’s health care services. In
addition, the two health centers that Planned
Parenthood Gulf Coast currently operates in Louisiana, they have never
provided abortion services in their 30-plus years of existence. So defunding
them would not reduce the number of Louisiana abortions.
·
Citing Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s lack of
performing abortions, three anonymous patients have sued to block Jindal’s
defunding decision. The plaintiffs have argued that the decision would inflict
“irreparable harm” to its 5,200
Medicaid patients, who have nowhere else to go for health care.
·
FYI: The small
state of Louisiana also has the highest rates of syphilis and gonorrhea among
all states and the second-highest rate of chlamydia.
·
In addition:
Louisiana is fifth in the US in HIV prevalence, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates it has the
highest share of HIV victims who don’t even know they’ve been infected.
For the
governor to go after Planned Parenthood, (That helps with all of the above issues.) it’s an easy way for him to rally the
state’s conservative base. Jindal
desperately needs to do this given that among Republican primary voters he’s
currently polling at 0% in Iowa and New Hampshire.
But what is so
disturbing about all this is that other US states have also tried and failed to
enacted similar policies and they have all have been struck down by the federal
courts. That’s because telling patients they
cannot go to a qualified and willing Medicaid provider of their choice violates
federal Medicaid law. But Governor
Jindal is still spending the state’s taxpayer money for attempting something
that isn’t going to happen.
It gets even
more ridiculous as in the governor’s plan to defund Planned Parenthood, the
state submitted a list of 2,010 other providers that these patients could
patronize. But the list was not a list of family-planning practitioners; it was
a list of all Medicaid-enrolled providers that included audiologists,
ophthalmologists, radiologists, nursing homes and dentists.
When a federal
judge questioned the relevance of the provider list, the state immediately
narrowed its offerings to only 29 health providers. But there’s no evidence these 29
can absorb the thousands of patients who would be displaced. That’s because Planned Parenthood serves an
estimated 30% of the female clients who use publicly funded
clinics in New Orleans, and 60% of those in Baton Rouge.
But it doesn’t
stop there.
Some of the
providers on that shorter list don’t even prescribe birth control; one has a
two-month wait for new patients (You’d
better not have an emergency situation!). And finally, some of the 29
aren’t even taking new patients.
But to make
his point, the governor has now instructed the state to terminate its relationship
with Planned Parenthood for “cause”.
Planned Parenthood will continue fighting these efforts, as well as similar
cases in Arkansas and Alabama.
To understand
how pathetic this situation is, one national publication published the
following comment about Louisiana’s GOP
:
“[Louisiana] Republican officials apparently
don’t care enough about women’s health to make the effort to really understand
it, since some seem to think women can get pap smears from their dentists.
Perhaps we can chalk that up to the same terrible American sex-ed curricula
that produced “legitimate rape” and other mind-bogglingly idiotic comments
about how women’s bodies work.”
Yes, it’s also
senators and representatives from several Southern states like Louisiana that
are now planning on shutting down the US Government (again) if they are not allowed to defund Planned Parenthood and
parts of Obamacare. This is an
item what they will be voting on in Washington by early October.
Yes, they will vote on this even though the way the funding for
Planned Parenthood and Obamacare is structured, it’s impossible for Congress to
defund these programs in this fashion.
But by voting to do this impossible thing, it does send a message to these
politician’s supporters that they are voting their intentions for doing their
state’s dirty work.
The reality is,
it is a true indication of the Republicans’ plans for dismantling any and all
future major US health-care programs.
Beware, these
efforts have only just begun.
Copyright G.Ater 201
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