PHOENIX — Courting yet another lawsuit, the state Senate voted Tuesday to throw a new hurdle into the path of Planned Parenthood participating in the state Medicaid program.
HB 2599 allows the director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to unilaterally exclude certain providers from participating in the program.
Some of these are technical, like submitting fraudulent claims. Others are more specific, like having been found liable for the neglect of a patient that results in death or injury.
But the key provision allows the AHCCCS chief, who is appointed by and answers to the governor, to eliminate any health care provider which does not segregate the money it spends on abortions, including any overhead expenses, from what it gets for providing covered Medicaid services.
The bill does not specifically mention Planned Parenthood. But its proponents have made it clear this is yet another attempt to defund the organization.
HB 2599, which already has been approved by the House, needs a final roll-call vote before going to Gov. Doug Ducey.
The move comes two years after the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed efforts by abortion foes to allow the state to enforce an earlier ban on state funding for Planned Parenthood. Arizona taxpayers shelled out about $200,000 in the organization’s legal fees.
Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, predicted this measure will meet the same fate, with taxpayers once again picking up the legal tab.
At the heart of the legal battle is the question of whether taxpayers are at least indirectly subsidizing abortions.
Planned Parenthood is currently a “qualified provider” of family planning services under Medicaid. That covers everything from gynecological exams to contraceptive counseling.
The federal government picks up about 90 percent of the tab, with the balance paid by the state.
Both state and federal law ban the use of tax dollars for elective abortions. But supporters of the bill contend that any money paid to Planned Parenthood covers things like the agency’s fixed costs for everything from staff and rent to utilities.
In 2012 the Legislature approved a measure saying that any organization that also provides abortions is unqualified to also participate in the Medicaid program.
Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, sponsor of both that measure and this new one, argued that any money the government gives Planned Parenthood to pay for other expenses frees up funds for abortions.
That argument did not wash with federal courts.
Judge Marsha Berzon, writing for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, pointed out that the law says those enrolled in Medicaid are entitled to get the services they need from any qualified provider. And Berzon said there is no evidence that Planned Parenthood medical staffers are not “qualified.”
Hobbs said this new version will meet the same fate. She called HB 2599 “another attempt to try to defund Planned Parenthood because some people don’t like what they do.”
“The fact is that thousands of women in Arizona depend on Planned Parenthood for health care,” she argued.
