analysis defunding planned parenthood would increase medicaid spending creditmark hertzberg for the new york timesmarch 14 2017cutting off federal funding for planned parenthood a longstanding conservative goal that is included in the republican bill to replace the affordable care act would reduce access to birth control for many women and result in thousands of additional medicaid births according to the congressional budget officebecause nearly half of all births nationwide are to medicaid patients and many of those babies are medicaid patients themselves the budget office estimated that defunding planned parenthood even for a year would increase medicaid spending by 21 million in the first year and 77 million by 2026the budget office numbers released this week as part of an overall analysis of the republican health bill are based on economic modeling but reallife experience in at least one state shows a similar resultin texas where the state cut off money to planned parenthood clinics in 2013 thousands of women stopped getting longacting birth control in the first 18 months and medicaid pregnancies increased by 27 percent according to a research paper published in the new england journal of medicine last yearplanned parenthood has long been a target of conservatives for being a leading provider of abortions in the united states although abortions make up a small percentage of its services which are more likely to include birth control and screening for sexually transmitted diseases in fact many of its clinics do not perform abortions in wisconsin for example only two of the organizations 21 clinics do federal funding is never used to pay for them since 1977 a law known as the hyde amendment has prohibited using federal money for abortionsthe republican health bill would defund planned parenthood for one year an earlier analysis by the cbo estimated that permanently defunding the organization as republicans would like to do would increase medicaid spending by even more 130 million over the next 10 yearsrepublicans said they would make up the 500 million they are cutting from planned parenthood by giving an extra 422 million to federally qualified health clinics speaker paul d ryan argues that those clinics have a vast larger network in virtually every community and provide health care to women with less controversy than planned parenthood because they do not provide abortionsbut across the country one in five counties served by planned parenthood have no federally qualified health clinics according to the earlier cbo analysis including two counties in mr ryans district in wisconsin the cbo estimates that in those areas cuts to planned parenthood would result in 15 percent of women losing access to health careantiabortion activists have produced lists of other federally qualified health providers who they say could provide many of the same family planning services offered by planned parenthood but a list of 2010 providers in louisiana included hundreds of ophthalmologists nursing homes dentists cosmetic surgeons and audiologists a list of 300 alternate providers in ohio included addiction treatment centers and food banksrepublicans say