Tell the Ohio House Representatives to SUPPORT Medicaid Expansion and REJECT Budget Amendments that Hurt Women and Families

Our Ohio House will be entertaining new legislation with respect to the Medicaid Expansion this year. Please tell our legislators that we support this expansion, and that if they obstruct it, they would do so against the will of their religious, spiritual, and moral constituents.

Additionally,

Our Ohio legislators have added several budget amendments that threaten women’s health.  Please tell our legislators that if they pass these amendments, then they do so against the will of their religious, spiritual, and moral constituents.

In addition to sending a letter or email, we ask for your hopes and prayers, and we ask you to spread the word to your contacts, asking them to ACT as well. 

To find contact info (email/address/phone) for your legislators, check the Ohio State House website.  Of course, use your own reasoning and examples, or start from the SAMPLE LETTER that follows for the House Reps.  These links contain text customized for the Governor and the Senators

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear Representative XXXX,

As a person of faith and as an Ohioan, I am a strong supporter of the Medicaid Expansion, which would strengthen our health care system.

Additionally, I am deeply alarmed over several amendments to the Budget Bill, Sub. HB 59, each of which would damage our health care system.

This letter stems from my heart, as a compassionate person concerned for my larger community, and stems from my head, as a steward of resources, since the expansion is important for Ohio’s economy and the amendments would HURT that same economy.

• I support Medicaid Expansion. Please check out this presentation from UHCAN Ohio explaining the importance of expanding Medicaid with the billions of federal dollars offered to Ohio.  As a person of faith, I cannot see the logic of sending low-income people to emergency rooms for care when it might be possible for low-income people to have preventative, planned health care which leads to less suffering, more dignity, and certainly, less cost for all.

• I oppose the Re-prioritizing of Title X and Title V funding with the intent to De-Fund Planned Parenthood and similar clinics.  This Testimony from Jaime Miracle of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio summarizes the negative impacts of such an approach.  Planned Parenthood separates its funding for abortion care so that such care is privately funded.  The organizations that would receive the funding are not prepared to serve the health needs of low-income women that Planned Parenthood serves, do not provide the quality, efficient care that Planned Parenthood and similar organizations offer, and in some cases, do not cover the rural, remote counties where women still need services.  Please reconsider and remove this amendment.

•  I oppose the Re-prioritizing of TANF funding such that dollars go to so-called “Crisis Pregnancy Centers”, which we have found to provide misleading and potentially dangerous information to women seeking reproductive health care.  Check out this report from NARAL ProChoice Ohio which explains why these centers do NOT deserve funding.  Such a redirection of funds to centers that dispense such misinformation would be embarrassing and a travesty, considering the good services that TANF provides for the underprivileged.

• I oppose the amendment that would give un-checked power to a government official with respect to the Transfer Agreements between Ambulatory Surgical Facilities and public hospitals.  While the amendments’ supporters are targeting abortion clinics, which the majority of your voters would want to remain safe and legal, such unfettered power could be thrown at any number of health providers that Ohioan’s of any stripe might be shocked to see wielded.  As a person of faith, and as a proud Ohioan, I hope and pray that you will not support the budget with this amendment.

There will be serious effects if the budget passes with these amendments in tact, both to the state’s economy and to individual’s health care and quality of life. The most devastating effects would be on the most vulnerable among us, including poor women, young women, women of color, immigrants, and women who live in rural areas. As people of faith, we cannot stand by and watch health care and health education being eroded for those in communities that are most in need.

So what is the solution?

These two amendments seem to be targeted to stopping abortion care.  Please remember that the rate of abortion in Ohio has been decreasing, and perhaps we can accelerate this trend through investment in comprehensive sexuality education.  Bills have been introduced in previous sessions; I encourage you to support such legislation should it resurface.

Health Care, including the kind of health care that Planned Parenthood’s Title X and Title V provides, has allowed me to be the productive, tax-paying, happy, community-servant that is writing you today.  Without health care, I would suffer pain and I would suffer economically.  Has health care done the same for you?  Doesn’t health care do the same for our wider community?

Please do what makes sense economically and ethically.

Please do NOT accept the budget with these amendments.

Thank you for considering my views.

Sincerely,

XXX

Sincerely,

XXXX

Address
City, State