Board protests funding cuts

The Flathead City County Board of Health agreed Thursday to send a letter urging state legislators to restore tobacco prevention money and the state appropriation for Title X family planning federal dollars.

In a letter to state Sen. Jon Sonju, R-Kalispell, the board points out that voters overwhelmingly supported spending one-third of the tobacco settlement dollars to prevent tobacco use.

The letter said that the Flathead City-County Health Department has historically used less than half of the dollars received for department positions.

Health Officer Joe Russell said the program has been effective in reducing rates of smoking across Montana, reducing the medical costs to the state from smoking-related illness.

The board letter goes on to address family planning, pointing out that the county health department has provided a clinic for over 40 years.

"The Title X program is designed to provide access to contraceptive services, supplies and information to all who want and need them," the board letter said.

By law, the department gives priority to low-income families.

Family planning staff provide only preventive services since federal law forbids use of these dollars for informing people about abortions or performing abortions.

Other services that are offered include cervical and breast cancer screening and sexually transmitted disease surveillance, investigation and control.

At the Thursday board meeting, Wendy Doely, executive director of the Flathead County Health Clinic, she said that Kalispell Rep. Keith Regier, R-Kalispell, submitted the amendment striking the appropriation for the federal funding for the program prior to the vote by the house.

The bill now is traveling through the state Senate.

"We were all caught off guard by the action last week," she said. "The state Legislature has to authorize the state to spend federal funding."

Along with clinical services, Doely said, the money also supports purchase of higher-cost contraceptives such as intrauterine devices. She said the health clinic might be able to absorb some patients but not all 3,200.

In an earlier interview, Doely said the cost to Medicaid of an unplanned pregnancy is more than $12,000 per patient for prenatal, delivery and first-year care.

"For each preventable pregnancy, we save the state a tremendous amount of money," she said.

Statistics show that more than 75 percent of the planned parenthood patients make 150 percent or less than the federal poverty line. The figure for 2011 would be $33,500 or less for a family of four people.

The board of health letter urges legislators not to reject the federal funds "available to Montana to support these essential services."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com .