Planned Parenthood protestors outside Ohio hearing. Taken by @joingles

After a lengthy and heated hearing, an Ohio bill meant to defund Planned Parenthood cleared a House committee on Wednesday by an 11-9 vote along party lines. House Bill 298, ostensibly about re-prioritizing federal family planning money, seeks to strip $1.7 million from Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. According to Planned Parenthood Ohio CEO Stephanie Knight, nearly 100,000 Ohio women depend on the organization for health care — overwhelmingly for preventative care including cancer screenings and birth control.

As Innovation Ohio notes, just two Planned Parenthood affiliates out of 36 family planning organizations received the federal grants in question, undermining the bill’s false pretense that other organizations are being overlooked in favor of Planned Parenthood.

Every single medical professional present testified against the bill. Dr. Grant Morrow of Nationwide Children’s Hospital decried HB 298 as the result of a “political agenda” that would have a devastating impact, primarily on poor and young women. Planned Parenthood is frequently a punching bag for many conservative politicians, despite the fact that abortions comprise only 3 percent of services provided by the women’s health organization. And as Dr. Kimberley Shepherd, a Columbus-based OB-GYN, testified during the hearing, defunding Planned Parenthood in Ohio would jeopardize cancer prevention screenings, STI care, hypertension testing, and many of the preventative measures the organization provides to low-income women.

Religious groups also sent multiple representatives to testify against HB 298. Former state representative Marian Harris of the National Council of Jewish Women argued that no one religious viewpoint should receive preferential treatment under the law, and pointed out that the legislation would gut funding for family planning clinics. Religious leaders also testified in support of Planned Parenthood, including a rabbi, a Lutheran minister, and a United Methodist minister.

And a rape survivor named Emily Shaw gave an emotional testimony about how she relied on Planned Parenthood services after she was raped at 13.

According to State Senator Nina Turner (D-OH), exit polls from Election Day showed that 56 percent of Ohioans support legal abortion all or most of the time, while just 39 percent thought it should be illegal. Nevertheless, HB 298 is just one example of the radical anti-choice legislation currently being considered by the Republican-controlled legislature in Ohio. Republicans in the state are also reviving a “heartbeat” bill that would categorically criminalize abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, representing the most restrictive ban in the country.

The bill will advance to a floor vote once it receives one more vote, most likely from one of three Republican members who were absent this afternoon. The rolls will be left open Thursday morning to get the required 12 votes.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) on Wednesday released a proposal that would cut $385 billion from U.S. health care expenditures without shifting the burden of costs onto America’s seniors and the middle class.

Dubbed “The Senior Protection Plan,” the proposal was unveiled in the face of impending budget negotiations between President Obama and Congressional leaders that will have enormous consequences for the federal safety net, particularly Medicare and Medicaid. While Obamacare has already made significant cuts to health spending, patient advocacy and provider groups have expressed concerns that a forthcoming “grand bargain” aimed at further reducing the federal budget deficit might be brokered on the backs of poor, elderly, and sick Americans.

Instead of instituting cuts that would only nominally reduce health care spending by cutting Americans’ health benefits and raising their premiums and out-of-pocket costs — as Republican proposals to slash Medicaid funding and turn Medicare into a voucher program would do — CAP’s plan hones in on the systemic factors that drive long-term medical inflation. Here are five proposals from the Senior Protection Plan aimed at cutting national health costs in a fair manner while improving the efficiency and quality of health care delivery to elderly and low-income Americans:

1) Reduce low-income Americans’ prescription drug costs. Drug manufacturers pay significantly lower rebates for drugs provided to Medicare beneficiaries than they do for drugs provided to Medicaid beneficiaries. This has led to drug companies shifting prescription drug coverage for so-called “dual eligibles” — particularly sick and poor Americans who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid — from the Medicaid program into the Medicare prescription drug plan, allowing the companies to reap massive profits without providing these vulnerable Americans any tangible benefit. The Senior Protection Plan would extend the higher Medicaid prescription drug rebates to brand-name medications purchased by dual eligible, low-income Medicare beneficiaries, leading to more affordable drug coverage for the poorest Americans as well as significant cost savings in the lucrative drug industry. Altogether, these proposals would reduce spending by $160 billion.

2) Curb waste and excessive payments to Medicare providers. The plan calls for an additional $88.6 billion in savings by bringing Medicare reimbursement rates in line with the actual costs of care while rooting out fraud and administrative waste in the program. Skilled nursing facilities, rural hospitals, and home health providers currently receive as much as $33 billion in excess payments, while Medicare overpays hospitals for inpatient services that are no more complex or time-consuming than less costly outpatient procedures. While the Obama Administration has been aggressive in cracking down on fraud in Medicare, the Senior Protection Plan finds even more savings by asking providers and caregivers to share eligibility, claims, and benefits information electronically, while aggressively pursuing perpetrators of Medicare billing fraud.

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