The Supreme Court has ruled that South Carolina has the power to block Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics, in a technical interpretation over healthcare choices that has emerged as a larger political fight over abortion access. The case, Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, centers on whether low-income Medicaid patients can sue in order to choose their own qualified healthcare provider. The federal-state program has shared responsibility for funding and administering it, through private healthcare providers.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster had been pushing to block public health dollars from going to Planned Parenthood, but a resident and patient at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic argued that doing so violated her rights under the Medicaid Act.
The key provision in the 1965 Medicaid Act guarantees patients a “free choice of provider” that is willing and qualified. Much of the conflict dealt with whether Planned Parenthood was a “qualified provider” under the Medicaid law, and whether individual patients have an unambiguous “right” to sue to see their provider of choice, under its specific language.
Federal law already prohibits Medicaid money from going to pay for abortions, with very limited exceptions. South Carolina bans almost all abortions around six weeks after conception, or when cardiac activity is detected, with limited exceptions.
The case stretches back to 2018, before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, when McMaster signed an executive order directing the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to remove abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (PPSAT), from the state’s Medicaid provider list. The governor said Medicaid money for the state’s two Planned Parenthood clinics amounted to taxpayers subsidizing abortions.
The conservative group Alliance Defending Freedom argued that a win for South Carolina would still mean Medicaid patients had the choice to go one of 200 other publicly funded healthcare clinics in the state that did not offer abortions.
Conclusion
The case could lead the way for other states to “disqualify” Planned Parenthood as a provider for a state’s Medicaid Plan. This is important because, of the 2.4 million people treated at Planned Parenthood each year, almost half use Medicaid. Thus if the states are to follow suit and “disqualify” Planned Parenthood, they could lose over half of their revenue from government revenue.
On the other hand, this is a limited case of does a CONSUMER have the right to sue over limits on their choice of medical providers. That is it and the Supreme Court said no. However, Planned Parenthood can still themselves appeal and/or bring suit over their disqualification.
Therefore, like many topics in the law – this is not over yet. Let us see what the politicians and courts have in store for us tomorrow.
May God Bless You, Your Business, and the United States of America,
