Ditto! I credit PP for keeping me child free in college! I first used their services when I decided to become sexually active at 19 with a college boyfriend. Over the years they also performed annual exams and helped me resolve an abnormal pap. They were nothing but wonderful, kind, and supportive. I didn't have health insurance until I turned 23. They were a life raft in an American world that seemed to pay little regard for the uninsured, especially young uninsured females. Where else could I have turned? There was no one else.
Everytime the GOP (men) go off on Planned Parenthood (and it's often) I think about how much PP has done for me to make me a healthy and successful female and how the GOP would if they could deny that access to so many younger women and others. It makes my blood boil.
Yes. My college health services would not prescribe birth control unless you sat through a safe sex course. I was too embarrassed to sir through that with my fellow classmates so I used PP.
Even with insurance I got my annual there . They were the most convenient for my crazy schedule. Also they let me get birth control more than a month at a time.
No I've never used it. I've always had insurance and the only reason I would have gone in college was because I was worried my parents would find out I was on BC and think I was having sex. But I was on BC for crazy periods long before I was sexually active (which my parents knew) and our on campus health service clinic and pharmacy was more accessible (right on campus) and incredibly cheap. The pharmacy gave you like 4m of BC for a super low price. My best friend did that because she didn't want her parents to know she was on BC. I'm not even sure they could find out but when you are 18, it seemed like something they might find out and the world would end. But the on campus thing was a much better option considering we didn't have cars as freshman and it was a five minute walk to the campus clinic.
I haven't, mostly b/c I think the only one in the state is Portland?
I did go to sliding scale county action program clinics until 4-5 years ago, when I finally got a PCP and stopped relying on WIC and the CAP clinic. I still miss the speed and efficiency of paps at the CAP clinic. PCP is so bumblely compared to the NPs who give 30 a day.
IUD insertion and care when normal OBGYN's wouldn't do it b/c I had not given birth.
They were amazing and when I had it removed they wrote me a script for both birth control pills and prenatal vitamins. (I was married when I had it removed, planning to TTC in the next few months...).
I voted SS because I didn't 'need' to go there. I had health insurance and a doctor I felt comfortable with. But PP would give me 6 months of birth control at a time and I could pay what I wanted (vs. a monthly copay through insurance). So I'd get 6 months and give them like $80 instead of paying $120. This was when I was in college so that extra $40 in my pocket made a difference.
I wonder if PP could make it work with private funding. There must be private donors out there with deep pockets who would come to its rescue. Or is their scale so big that this is totally unworkable? In my fantasy though someone gives them several hundred million as an endowment and PP tells the GOP to fuck off permanently.
No way. Â It's a public health issue and should be funded by the public. Â You don't get to force private people to do what you SHOULD be doing just because you don't want to do it. Â Then you create a scenario where if it works, the GOP can just tell whatever else they don't like, "just go private, planned parenthood did it" and if it doesn't, well, great. Â Not to mention it would siphon SO MANY resources from other places they could go.
Private funding for PP doesn't even make sense as the majority of federal funds that go to PP is for Medicaid reimbursement. Why would PP be denied medicaid reimbursement for services when other medical providers are not?
No way. Â It's a public health issue and should be funded by the public. Â You don't get to force private people to do what you SHOULD be doing just because you don't want to do it. Â Then you create a scenario where if it works, the GOP can just tell whatever else they don't like, "just go private, planned parenthood did it" and if it doesn't, well, great. Â Not to mention it would siphon SO MANY resources from other places they could go.
Private funding for PP doesn't even make sense as the majority of federal funds that go to PP is for Medicaid reimbursement. Why would PP be denied medicaid reimbursement for services when other medical providers are not?
Plus, let's be real. The opponents of PP won't stop at defunding. They are waging an all out war on women's healthcare. It is silly to concede any ground when you know they will just pull a Lucy and move the football.
I've always had health insurance but last year I went there for my pap because I didn't feel like going through the hassle of searching for a new gyn.
I have to get a follow up pap this year and plan to use them again because they're close and convenient with a lot of weekend hours since I can never make weekday appointments.
So I go to PP by choice.
Similarly, I used PP by choice until last year. I started going there when I was a freshman in college and was comfortable with the NP there, so I never bothered to switch even once I had my own insurance and could afford to go elsewhere. I was paying in full or fully covered the majority of my time there. I only switched because I started noticing the wait time at the clinic was starting to get pretty long. Unfortunately, I couldn't take that much time out of a workday for one appointment, and also, I didn't want to add to what seemed like an understaffed clinic and take away from people who need PP's services more than I do.
How would that even work. A medicaid recipent walks into PP for a mamogram. PP sends a bill to Medicaid. Medicaid writes back, "Sorry, please see Koch brothers for payment."?
Birth control and pap smears in college when I didn't really have much insurance. Although I wasn't even having sex, I just wanted the pills to help with acne and period pains.
I was so annoyed when they moved locations to some place that was way far away and didn't even have a bus route. I didn't have a car so I had to go when I was home for break.
I used them for annual exams and BC all through college. Had a great experience, very thankful for their services and now I make a donation every year.
I wonder if PP could make it work with private funding. There must be private donors out there with deep pockets who would come to its rescue. Or is their scale so big that this is totally unworkable? In my fantasy though someone gives them several hundred million as an endowment and PP tells the GOP to fuck off permanently.
No way. It's a public health issue and should be funded by the public. You don't get to force private people to do what you SHOULD be doing just because you don't want to do it. Then you create a scenario where if it works, the GOP can just tell whatever else they don't like, "just go private, planned parenthood did it" and if it doesn't, well, great. Not to mention it would siphon SO MANY resources from other places they could go.
This is a good point. It's just that they provide such an essential service in our society that I wish they could just go about their business doing that without getting attacked every other day. I'm so sick of hearing Republicans attacking it as this hugely evil entity just because they provide abortion services. It's been over 40 years since pregnancy terminations have been legalized. When are abortion rights going to be viewed as sacrosanct in this country?
Post by lyssbobiss, Command, B613 on Aug 5, 2015 9:31:13 GMT -5
I just get so fucking ranty about this. It is inherently more expensive to be a women from a medical perspective. We are expected, just to stay healthy, to have two physicians (a GP and a GYN). We can see specialists on top of that, but that's the bare minimum. Men? Just the one doctor. But we are expected to pay for pads or tampons or diva cups, we are all almost expected to be on the pill but apparently not talk about it or complain about the cost, or only use the ones GOP men are comfortable with. When we get pregnant, unless covered under a spouse's insurance, we are expected to shoulder the cost of prenatal care. A man's insurance isn't automatically billed for care of HIS BABY TOO, RIGHT? Even after menopause, our asses aren't done, we still have to go back for paps and mammograms. So the one organization - THE ONE GROUP - who is out there helping women shoulder all of these additional costs is now under fire.
Goddammit GOP. Don't fucking tell me there isn't a war on women's health. Don't tell me you value women and families when you want to cut funding to PP and keep us oppressed by having to pay more, because we all committed the same sin of having a uterus. I'll not hear it. Your asses do not value women.
"This prick is asking for someone here to bring him to task Somebody give me some dirt on this vacuous mass so we can at last unmask him I'll pull the trigger on it, someone load the gun and cock it While we were all watching, he got Washington in his pocket."
My company switched to terrible health insurance around 2008, the gyno I had been using wasn't covered, and I would have had to drive at least 45 minutes at inconvenient times - in the city of LA, so it's not like gynos were few and far between. So I began to schedule routine paps and get my BC prescription from PP. That location was sliding scale, so definitely not free, but it was cheap. Something like $65 for an exam, usually. I would round up $10 or so to donate more.
I had some major communication issues with that particular location not getting back to my pharmacist to refill my prescription, forcing me to go without BC, but that was isolated. I still support PP and they are one of my top organizations when it comes to charitable giving, both to PP and to the action fund, which I donate to monthly.
I just get so fucking ranty about this. It is inherently more expensive to be a women from a medical perspective. We are expected, just to stay healthy, to have two physicians (a GP and a GYN). We can see specialists on top of that, but that's the bare minimum. Men? Just the one doctor. But we are expected to pay for pads or tampons or diva cups, we are all almost expected to be on the pill but apparently not talk about it or complain about the cost, or only use the ones GOP men are comfortable with. When we get pregnant, unless covered under a spouse's insurance, we are expected to shoulder the cost of prenatal care. A man's insurance isn't automatically billed for care of HIS BABY TOO, RIGHT? Even after menopause, our asses aren't done, we still have to go back for paps and mammograms. So the one organization - THE ONE GROUP - who is out there helping women shoulder all of these additional costs is now under fire.
Goddammit GOP. Don't fucking tell me there isn't a war on women's health. Don't tell me you value women and families when you want to cut funding to PP and keep us oppressed by having to pay more, because we all committed the same sin of having a uterus. I'll not hear it. Your asses do not value women.
I've always had health insurance but last year I went there for my pap because I didn't feel like going through the hassle of searching for a new gyn.
I have to get a follow up pap this year and plan to use them again because they're close and convenient with a lot of weekend hours since I can never make weekday appointments.
So I go to PP by choice.
Yeah, this was my experience too.
I see a lot of people on news stories commenting about how Obamacare makes preventative care like PAP smears free, so there's no need for cheap/sliding scale clinics like PP.
But that assumes you have decent insurance that you know how to use. (My insurance always take a week to get back to me when I have a question.) And that there are doctors that take your insurance near you that you like and have convenient hours.
I can absolutely see people only being able to go to the place in their neighborhood, or that's accessible to you, or that has convenient hours, like Saturday morning.
Hell, as a 20-something with crappy insurance, getting a flu shot at Walgreens or my office, eye exams at big box stores, and PAPs and BC at Planned Parenthood meant that I was able to coordinate my health care relatively easily without having to find a primary care physician and then coordinate everything through that office. It's fewer appointments. It's less time. It's more convenient. It's just easier.
I wonder if PP could make it work with private funding. There must be private donors out there with deep pockets who would come to its rescue. Or is their scale so big that this is totally unworkable? In my fantasy though someone gives them several hundred million as an endowment and PP tells the GOP to fuck off permanently.
The government funding is 40% of their entire budget. :/
Yes, general women's care when without insurance. BC pills and condoms in HS. Post-assault care and STD testing.
I've been a staunch supporter ever since.
And yet I do confess that some of these videos about the sale of fetal parts, especially one I saw where they were picking through and saying, "oh, that's an eyeball, but hardly usable. Oh here is brain. Here are arms and legs - got both of 'em," do bother me.
How would that even work. A medicaid recipent walks into PP for a mamogram. PP sends a bill to Medicaid. Medicaid writes back, "Sorry, please see Koch brothers for payment."?
What seems like a possibility is to defund them for breaking the law through the sale of fetal parts across state lines.
I have not heard this explicitly stated, but if they can get them on the OIG excluded parties list because they can prove employees at PP at the highest levels endorsed the sale of fetal parts as a business venture, not donations to research, PP will no longer qualify for medicare reimbursements, period.
I need to read up on the logic/premise of the "defund" efforts because I confess between buying and selling houses and a peoplesoft system upgrade at my office all within the last 4-5 weeks, I haven't stayed up with the news.
Someone posted one of the videos in my news feed on FB and it was pretty damning of at least the individual. My question is what did PP do to that individual and/or was that individual acting in line with PP executive talking points.
I don't want to see PP go away because a few people got greedy and did something wrong/unethical/illegal (if that is even proven true).
I have never needed to use them but I feel they and their services are necessary. Even abortions. I don't like that now that I have had my own child I do feel differently about what abortion is but I still feel so strongly about a woman's right to choose no matter the circumstances. Planned parenthood provides very much needed services. And requires funding. Better to offer women options on preventative check ups, birth control, and even termination of a pregnancy than to not do so. Fyi I am a republican too.
I have never needed to use them but I feel they and their services are necessary. Even abortions. I don't like that now that I have had my own child I do feel differently about what abortion is but I still feel so strongly about a woman's right to choose no matter the circumstances. Planned parenthood provides very much needed services. And requires funding. Better to offer women options on preventative check ups, birth control, and even termination of a pregnancy than to not do so. Fyi I am a republican too.
Thank you!!!!
Eta: and bless you!! And may there be more of you!!' <3