October 27, 2017

Get Involved, Health Care, Medicaid

Maine Family Planning is part of a statewide coalition working to pass Medicaid expansion on November 7th. Here, our community organizer Cait Vaughan shares a little more about why Yes on 2 is a vote for Maine women.

As the community organizer for Maine Family Planning, I’ve spent the last couple of months talking about little else but Medicaid expansion and the opportunity to vote YES on statewide ballot Question 2 on November 7th. Along with our incredible UMaine Orono intern and MFP volunteers, I have been making phone calls, speaking at events, engaging patients in the clinic waiting room, and (most importantly) knocking on doors to encourage Mainers to vote in favor of expanding this critical program. Back in May, I wrote about Medicaid as a feminist issue and how this joint federal and state-funded program is a crucial aspect of the family planning safety net. With Election Day rapidly approaching, I wanted to focus in a bit more on why we at MFP view expanding Medicaid—known as MaineCare in our state—as a vote in favor of women’s health and autonomy.

MFP serves roughly 21,000 patients each year across our 18 clinics that span 12 of the state’s 16 counties.  Roughly a quarter of our patients receive Medicaid right now, which makes sense, considering that women receiving Medicaid are more likely than those on private insurance to receive gynecological care at a family planning clinic or Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) instead of a private physician’s office. Women receiving Medicaid are also significantly more likely than those with private insurance or uninsured women to speak with their providers about important issues like contraceptives, sexual history, HIV, and domestic violence. Another 38% of patients who visit our clinics utilize the sliding scale payment option, largely due to a lack of access to health insurance.  This means that many women rely on us as their sole health care provider, and they are some of the folks who will be most positively impacted by expansion. While our clinicians provide excellent and compassionate care, patients need access to the full range of health care services in order to lead lives of dignity, opportunity, and self-determination. Those qualities truly encapsulate our greater mission as a health care provider and advocate in the feminist tradition of improving women’s lives.

One of our greatest contributions as a provider might be the advances we’ve made—via telehealth services—to improve access to sexual and reproductive health care in Maine’s rural and low-income communities. Voting Yes on 2 would allow us to go even farther. Half of the state’s current MaineCare recipients live in rural areas, and MaineCare provides coverage for many telehealth services (not currently inclusive of abortion care). Expanding Medicaid could complement the steps we’ve already taken to ensure that crucial health care services are available to our patients in rural towns like Fort Kent, Machias, and Rumford. MaineCare expansion can assist patients in overcoming economic barriers to health care that are compounded by geography and a sorely lacking public transportation infrastructure.

As a Title X provider, it’s also important to note that Medicaid has become the most significant public funding source for family planning services in the past decade. Medicaid’s funding for family planning outpaces even federal Title X, which is consistently targeted for cuts and has not been able to keep up with the rising costs of delivering care. We experience firsthand the many ways that access to a quality public health insurance program like Medicaid supports improvements in women’s health, the benefits of which have a ripple effect on our entire statewide community. We hope you’ll join us in voting Yes on 2 on Tuesday, November 7th and take an important step in making women’s health in Maine the way it should be.

If you’d like to volunteer a few hours of your time to support Yes on 2, you can join a special canvass of Friends of Repro Rights jointly led by Maine Family Planning & Planned Parenthood this coming Monday, October 30th in Augusta. Find full details & register here.

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