The North Carolina Senate passed a bill Monday to increase transparency for patients receiving medical care and stop state funding from going to Planned Parenthood through Medicaid.
All Democrats in the chamber voted against HB 192, Defund Planned Parenthood & Cost Transparency.
The first part of the bill would require hospitals and ambulatory surgical facilities to provide a good-faith estimate for a patient so they know what they will pay for a shoppable service. A facility may not refer a patient’s unpaid bill to a collections agency unless it has first given the patient an itemized list of charges.
The second part of the bill would prohibit Planned Parenthood from participating in Medicaid.
According to bill sponsor Sen. Amy Galey, R-Alamance, there was $830,000 still available through Medicaid for which Planned Parenthood could bid for work. The federal Big Beautiful Bill Act allowed this bill to close that loophole so Planned Parenthood will not be able to receive funds for family-planning services through Medicaid.
During the public comment period inMonday’s Senate Appropriations/Base Budget Committee meeting, visitors spoke mostly against the bill, saying they were concerned there would be health care and maternity care deserts if the bill passed. They also argued that Planned Parenthood does not fund abortions and that Medicaid provides life-saving health care to people who cannot afford it.
“I want to make it crystal clear that this bill is about playing politics,” said Paige Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. “It is a distraction to call this a defunding bill. It is about taking health care away from the people who need it. North Carolinians who depend on Medicaid will lose access to affordable reproductive health care, including access to birth control, cancer screenings, and treatment for STIs.”
Galey stressed that this is not a cut to Medicaid and is only a change in who is allowed to be a provider of certain services.
“These would be family-planning services that can include reproductive, preventive health, contraceptive services, screening, and testing for sexually transmitted infections,” she said. “It is not a cut. It just changes who is allowed to contract with the state to provide these services, which I believe, as a former county commissioner, all of these services are also available through your county health department.”
Sen. Val Applewhite asked Galey if this means the Planned Parenthood in Fayetteville would no longer be able to address the STI epidemic in the county.
Galey replied, “My understanding is that under the bill, Planned Parenthood would no longer be able to receive Medicaid funds to provide those services. That doesn’t keep them from using other funds.”
Sen. Grafstein asked Galey why the bill’s sponsors don’t want Planned Parenthood providing services like cancer screenings and birth control, noting that Medicaid doesn’t pay for abortions.
“My personal opinion is that Planned Parenthood is not a good-faith provider of health care services to women, and I think that they should not be receiving state funds in any way, shape, or form,” Galey said. “That’s my personal opinion.”
H192 goes to the senate floor
On the Senate floor Monday afternoon, Galey said Planned Parenthood has been shown to be complicit in countless abuses and focuses more on politics than health care. She said Planned Parenthood South Atlantic transferred almost $5 million in 2023 to its political action committee for political donations to candidates in 2024.
“Looking at the second- and third-quarter reports in North Carolina, about $100,000 was transferred to people who were running for this body, the North Carolina General Assembly, as well as other state-level candidates,” Galey said.
Applewhite said that, in full transparency, she has been a recipient of PAC money from Planned Parenthood, but that wasn’t her concern. Rather she said the bill is a restriction to health care for poor women who don’t have another option.
“My concern is the young people, embarrassed and with nowhere else to go because all they have is Medicaid, and the health department is overflowing,” she said.
The legislation reflects President Trump’s Executive Order from January that enforces the Hyde Amendment, intended to prevent taxpayer money from going toward elective abortions.
“It is our duty to ensure that your hard-earned tax dollars are spent thoughtfully and do not support partisan actors like Planned Parenthood,” Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said in a press release. “For years, we’ve chipped away at unnecessary funding Planned Parenthood received from the state, but thanks to President Trump, we now can cut them off completely.”
The bill now goes to the House for consideration.
