The Republican health care bill proposed to replace Obamacare is facing consideration -- consider -- one of the groups that would be affected have not been heard from. Under the GOP plan low income women who get their medical insurance to Medicaid would no longer be able to use the services of plans parenthood clinics. Federal funding does not pay for abortions. This would cut reimbursements for birth control, cancer screening and other medical procedures. Joining me is Nora Vargas. She's vice president of community and government relations with plant. Heard action fund of the Pacific Southwest. Welcome to the program. Thank you. Does this mean any service on Medicaid patient received from Planned Parenthood would not be paid for by Medicaid? Yes. Any services that they are being reimbursed from will not be paid for. Is this that defunding of plan that many pro-life groups have wanted for so long? Congress is saying women in America can pick their healthcare provider of their choice. Women who provide on Planned Parenthood will no longer be able to come to Planned Parenthood. The president has said that Planned Parenthood would no longer receive federal funding. How would losing that Medicaid funding affect your organization? Planned Parenthood has been around for 100 years. They will continue to make sure we work hard for women and their families. Over 200,000 patients in our three regions receive services from Planned Parenthood over 70% of our funding comes from the federal government. Women who are in underserved communities will be the ones that will be impacted by this. You referred to San Diego [ Indiscernible ] and County. Is this one of the biggest and parenthood in the country? We are one of the largest in the region. We are proud of being able to provide confidential, nonjudgmental services for our patients in all three counties. Remind us of the range of services? We provide a range of productive and sexual health care services from birth control, SDD testing and treatment, pregnancy testing, cervical cancer screening and prevention, while women exams, breast exams, vasectomy for men, sex education so it is a broad of range of services. Supporters of the GOP plan state women on Medicaid can go to other clinics to receive their services. Is that true? We have -- because of the affordable care act we have a strong partnership with our community clinics in all three counties. We are proud of the referral services that we have with each other. It is unfortunate because the need is so great in our communities not only in our region but in California and the nation. Most of the clinics across the state agree with us they would not be able to service all the patients that would be impacted by defunding of Planned Parenthood. There are 800 850,000 Californians -- Californians that would lose the services. Is it possible even if this bill were to pass nationally that California's low income insurance Medi-Cal could Phil Gramm does reimburse print parenthood for services? We have the support of our legislature and governor but the reality is the impact on California -- 800 800,000 Californians would lose access to care. Imagine where they will go and how the state government would be able to support that finding. That would be tough on the state. How do you think individual women may be affected by not being able to go to Planned Parenthood. For many women Planned Parenthood is the only healthcare provider they know. We pride ourselves in ensuring women have access to confidential, nonjudgmental services and so a lot of these women will be impacted. In a lot of communities women do not have access to basic healthcare. Planned Parenthood is a provider of choice. Individually they will be in a difficult situation were not able to get access to birth control and basic services. We her donations have soared since Donald Trump became president. Will that ease the impact of future cuts? We are grateful to our donors and supporters and all the folks that are out there supporting Planned Parenthood financially. We are like any other healthcare provider, hospitals and clinics. When you are talking about 70% of our funding coming from the federal government the impact of those dollars are much broader than what we can sustain with donations. We are appreciative of all donations. We welcome them. When you are talking about 70% of our funding come from the federal government it's a big portion of dollars. Is Planned Parenthood lobbying against the new GOP health bill? We are doing our advocacy work at the national level with members of Congress and have stepped up the work that we are doing. We are partners in a coalition in a healthcare for all and engaging over 200,000 folks to join us in a town hall asking the congressman to have a discussion with us on how this reform will impact our communities. You may have heard there was a number of folks that showed up at his office last couple of weeks that defunding Planned Parenthood is bad for our community and country. Last week we were in Washington DC with patients and providers connecting with our legislators and emphasizing how important Planned Parenthood is to our communities. We had great come -- conversations. We are prepared to stand up for women. We are going to make sure these members of Congress know that it's not okay to play with women's healthcare. It's not okay to not provide health care services and we will continue to advocate for them. Been speaking with Nora Vargas. She's with the Planned Parenthood action fund of the Pacific Southwest. Thank you. Thank you.
The bill introduced by House Republicans on Monday to replace the Affordable Care Act would defund Planned Parenthood by not allowing Medicaid to reimburse services that the organization provides.
Federal funding already does not pay for abortions. The new bill would cut reimbursements for birth control, cancer screenings and other medical procedures at Planned Parenthood clinics.
Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest serves San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties.
"Over 200,000 patients in our three regions receive services from Planned Parenthood. Over 70 percent of our funding comes from the federal government. And so women who are in underserved communities and medically-unrepresented populations will be the ones that really are going to be impacted by this," said Nora Vargas, vice president of community and government relations for Planned Parenthood Action Fund of the Pacific Southwest.
Vargas joins Midday Edition on Thursday to talk about how the changes proposed by House Republicans would impact the organization.
