On the ACCESS page of www.TheAWordOhio.com we provided you with information about the overwhelming need for convenient, accessible reproductive health care. There are many reasons that this issue is pertinent to individuals and families living in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky. Maybe access to reproductive health care services is crucial in our communities because the statistics show that Hamilton County and other counties in our region have the highest rates of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea in the state and across the country. Maybe it is because Clark County has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the State of Ohio.OR, could it be that these rates are so high because reproductive health care, education and counseling services are unaffordable to many within our region?
Also on the ACCESS page, we defined the term ‘safety net provider’. Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region (PPSWO) is a safety net provider of reproductive health care. As a non-profit organization, we raise funds to serve our patients from private donors and grants from foundations. We also receive Title X funding from the nation’s family planning program. Collectively, these resources enable Planned Parenthood to provide routine gynecological health care and family planning services to those among us who fall through the cracks of the health care system, either because they are uninsured or underinsured.
According to an Issue Brief of The Commonwealth Fund, April 2007, Elizabeth Patchias and Judy Waxman from the National Women’s Law Center say:
“Although men and women have some similar challenges with regard to health insurance, women face unique barriers to becoming insured. More significantly, women have greater difficulty affording health care services even once they are insured. On average, women have lower incomes than men and therefore have greater difficulty paying premiums. Women also are less likely than men to have coverage through their own employer and more likely to obtain coverage through their spouses; are more likely than men to have higher out-of-pocket health care expenses; and use more health care services than men and consequently are in greater need of comprehensive coverage.”
Rachel Benson Gold of the Guttmacher Institute said in the Winter 2008 issue of the Guttmacher Policy Review, “Since the 1970s, publicly subsidized, specialized clinics have played a critical role in providing family planning counseling, contraceptive services and closely related preventive health care to young and low-income women at risk of unintended pregnancy. Currently, nearly 7,700 family planning clinics serve about seven million women annually.” PPSWO has 10 of those family planning clinics in the Southwest Ohio Region and we serve 50,000 women and men.
Guttmacher also reported in their 2007 Annual Report that one in six U.S. women who received recent contraceptive or reproductive health care obtained these services at a publicly funded clinic. In 2006, 20% of all women of reproductive age, and 40% of those who were poor, were uninsured. |
Gynecological and family planning services are basic health care. Do not deprive yourself of vital preventive and therapeutic services because you think you cannot afford them. PPSWO provides comprehensive family planning services (annual gynecological exams, PAP tests, clinical breast exams, health history and current health status, screenings for breast and cervical cancers and sexually transmitted infections (STIs)—including HIV, birth control information, education and supplies, and treatment for STIs to women and men regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, citizenship or ability to pay. Women and men who receive these services will be able to take better care of their reproductive health and will be educated in order to make informed family planning decisions. Call Planned Parenthood today.
