Posted on: Sunday, August 12, 2001

Editorial
Latest federal health plan poses a danger

Once again the Bush administration has come up with a healthcare proposal that sounds good but could easily have dark and unwanted side-effects.

Earlier, there was a proposal to extend certain kinds of federal healthcare programs to pre-natal care. Nothing wrong there, except the benefits would be extended to the unborn fetus, not to the pregnant mother.

That creates, in effect, a medical "right" for the fetus that opens the way for discussions of other rights.

Now there is a proposal from the Department of Health and Human Services to drop a waiver program that allowed Medicaid-funded family planning services to be offered to a broad range of a state's population.

The department insists it is not opposed to the waiver program per se, but to the specific family-planning waiver. That's because it is a "single-issue" waiver that covers a particular service rather than comprehensive healthcare. The department says it is not against family planning, but simply wants to work with the states to make waiver requests more extensive. That's fine, but what is likely to be lost are existing family-planning waiver programs that have proved themselves to be very cost-effective and useful.

According to the Washington Post, studies show that every dollar spent on family-planning services saves up to $3 in avoided healthcare costs.

That's a bargain by any measure that should not be thrown out in pursuit of a broader, yet potentially unworkable effort to expand this program.