Texas Women's Health Program

The editorial that was published in the Austin American Statesman on Jan 24, 2013, by the Editorial Board, highlights the poor execution of the Texas Women’s Health Program, as it changed hands from federal oversight to state and local oversight at the beginning of 2013.  

The author criticizes the state of Texas for refusing to continue with the federally funded health care program that was affiliated with Planned Parenthood.  The federal government’s contribution to this program was a vast 32 million dollars, however, this coverage is now up to the state.   The author argues that the forecasted doubts behind the shortcomings of the state have been justified.  The state has already had considerable trouble in accurately providing a list of the health care providers for this new program.  The website with this information has incorrectly linked medical providers who are not affiliated with the program, as well as those providers who are no longer accepting new patients.  This makes it incredibly difficult for someone who is trying to obtain coverage.  Additionally, the author includes a report released by George Washington University, which states that at least five counties in Texas would ultimately struggle to accommodate the same number of women patients that had previously received care through Planned Parenthood.  These statistics are very ominous and the risks of not being able to provide care to the women in need are too great.  

I believe that the author’s intended audience is the general public, however, this article hits close to home for women.  I agree with the general sentiments behind this opinion piece, however I believe that it is incredibly early in the life of this program to declare it a failure.  I sincerely hope that progress can and will be made to ensure that this program continues to provide the same level of care as the original program, if not better.