Under the chamber's proposed plan, public en ies like state, county and community health clinics would get first crack at the cash. “Non-public en ies” that provide screenings as part of “comprehensive” primary and preventive care would come in second place.
And private specialty clinics like the Livingston facility would only get cancer-screening funding if there's money left over. That includes Planned Parenthood — whose family planning and cancer-screening clinics are a target of GOP lawmakers even though they are prohibited from performing abortions if they receive tax dollars.
The Senate’s chief budget writer, state Sen.
Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, has said the proposed tiered funding is intended to ensure that facilities unaffiliated with abortion providers are funded first.
But under the proposed funding revisions, at least 34 providers not affiliated with Planned Parenthood — nearly one-fifth of those currently using program dollars — would be moved into the second or third tier for funding.
“There’s not going to be anything left by the time it gets to us,” said Carol Belver, executive director of Community Action Inc. of Central Texas, whose three clinics screened a combined 625 women in the San Marcos area last year. Though her clinics provide primary care, the cancer screenings are offered as a separate service — leaving Community Action in the bottom tier for funding.
“We’re the collateral damage,” she added.
The screening program, which is primarily funded with federal dollars, served 33,599 Texas women in fiscal year 2014 — 57 percent of whom were Hispanic.
In some rural parts of the state, the funding change could leave the sole program provider in the area with little to no funding for cancer screenings. In Amarillo, for example, four Haven Health clinics are the only program providers, but they would all likely fall into the third tier for funding.
Patricia Jones, director of community-based care for Memorial Health System of East Texas, which treated Riley, said Memorial is the only program contractor with clinics in Livingston, Lufkin and San Augustine.
“We’ve had this funding almost 20 years, and if we were to lose that funding, you have 350 ladies who lose this access to a complex system,” Jones said. “You’d have 20 cancers that wouldn’t have been diagnosed as early as they were.”
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