I practice ob-gyn in new york, and estimate that about 80% of the abortions we do at my hospital are covered by Medicaid - probably similiar stats in the other 16 states where medicaid will cover it. With [the Stupak-Pitts Amendment], that coverage might disappear, if medicaid gets pulled into the exchange. Most of my patients will not have the money for an abortion. They will go to the pharmacy and buy medication to induce an abortion under the counter (widely available in our latino neighborhood).
They will come to the hospital with bleeding, probably denying that they took anything, but stuck somewhere in the process of the abortion, what we call “incomplete”. Most will be perfectly stable. But even those who are fine will require follow up ultrasounds, clinic visits and possibly a d&c to complete the process, as well as many expensive lab draws if the fetus is passed by the time they come to the hospital, because then we have to make sure it isn’t an ectopic pregnancy which requires weeks of follow up.
So, your not wanting to have your dollars go to pay for a $500 abortion has now turned into you paying $1500-$2000 in medicaid hospital bills for management of an “incomplete miscarriage” or “rule out ectopic.” You have saved yourself exactly NO tax dollars. Congratulations.
How do I know this exact sequence? Because we already do this exact thing between 3-5 times a week for women who already do this, because they don’t know abortion is legal, they don’t know medicaid will pay here, they have a friend who did it that way. If they take away the medicaid option, I’ll just be running my ass down to the ER to see these ladies about 200 times more often, and all you abortion-hating taxpayers will still be footing the bill.
Via: 1
No comments:
Post a Comment