Defunding Planned Parenthood, a measure in the bill to repeal and partially replace Obamacare, would reduce access to care and lead to more births, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO estimate released Monday looks at a provision in the American Health Care Act to defund the women’s healthcare and abortion provider for one year by cutting its Medicaid reimbursements. The bill intends to gut and partially replace Obamacare.
Planned Parenthood receives about $500 million in federal funding each year and has long been a target of anti-abortion lawmakers.
While it is illegal to use federal funds to pay for abortions, conservatives have been infuriated over a series of 2015 undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting and donation of aborted fetal tissue. The videos sparked an investigation in the House.
The CBO score expects that blocking Planned Parenthood funding would save $178 million in 2017 and by $234 million over the next decade. Any savings would be partially offset by increased Medicaid spending, however.
CBO expects that reductions in access to care would affect services to help women avoid pregnancies.
“The people most likely to experience reduced access to care would probably reside in areas without other healthcare clinics or medical practitioners who serve low-income populations,” the CBO said.
It projected about 15 percent of those people would lose access to care.
CBO further estimates that the additional births stemming from the reduced access to care would “add to federal spending for Medicaid,” as the costs of about 45 percent of all births are paid for by the federal program.
CBO estimates in the one year funds are restricted, live births funded by Medicaid would increase by several thousand, increasing Medicaid spending by $21 million in 2017 and $77 million from 2017 to 2026.
Overall, implementing the defunding provision would cut Medicaid spending by $156 million over the next decade, CBO said.
The provision has earned some pushback from GOP senators, as Planned Parenthood supporters Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, have fought to save federal funding for the women’s health and abortion provider.
Planned Parenthood quickly pointed out that the findings reaffirm that the bill is “dangerous and must be stopped.”
