BUTTE, MT, March 13, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “Planned Parenthood is a lifeline for folks in this state,” Cecile Richards said at a fundraiser for a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Montana this weekend. She was referring to her organization's role as navigators, desperately attempting to locate and sign up uninsured Americans for health care under the Affordable Care Act, conventionally known as ObamaCare.
The Montana Standard reported that Richards “said Planned Parenthood has helped sign up 27 million women in the country for free health insurance through ACA” at a fundraiser for U.S. senate candidate John Walsh. The paper did not provide a direct quotation of the remark.
The robust 27 million figure amounts to more than six times as many people as are estimated to have signed up for the program nationwide.
The White House estimates its bill will insure a maximum of 24 million people over the next several years. About four million have signed up for a new plan to date, although not that many have managed to pay for and secure health care coverage.
“A miscalculation of 23 million people is usually reserved for government,” March for Life Vice President for Government Affairs Tom McClusky quipped.
Richards has used the figure 27 million in a September 2013 Politico article, citing government estimates of the number of women receiving “expanded coverage,” such as contraception with no co-pay, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. It is not clear how many women needed or desired such coverage, nor how many of these changes were due to Planned Parenthood and how many resulted from government mandates and policy change.
What is indisputable is that Planned Parenthood employees are actively seeking ObamaCare enrollees nationwide. Teams of employees are active in eight states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Roughly half of their canvassing has been done in Spanish.
Planned Parenthood said in a press release that its loyalists “are knocking on an average of 20,000 doors a day.”
The New York Times followed the abortion industry's employees around Florida last month as they scurried to add uninsured people to the rolls. That day they contacted 2,623 people and enrolled only 25, less than one in 100.
To enroll 27 million Americans at that rate, they would have had to contact 2,842,105,263 Americans (approximately nine times the entire U.S. population).
Nonetheless, the nation's largest abortion provider has announced it is holding 500 events in 18 cities across four states to sign people up for the program. These events purportedly “span tabling at local grocery stores to working with partners at Goodwill to connecting with families at local indoor soccer fields.”
Much of that activism is funded by U.S. taxpayers. Planned Parenthood Montana, where Richards was speaking, is one of three of the abortion industry's affiliates to receive more than $655,000 in taxpayer funds from the Obama administration to hire “navigators,” employees who are supposed to assist people signing up for plans through ObamaCare health exchanges.
Navigators are able to tap into the federal data hub, giving them access to every single American's Social Security number, tax form, banking information, and medical records. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Sen. John Cornyn last November that, due to lax federal regulations, it “is possible” that navigators could be convicted felons, possibly including identity theft.
Undercover reporters have filmed navigators telling them to lie on their applications. The reports have not prevented Congresswoman Gwen Moore, D-WI, from promoting an ObamaCare sign-up event co-sponsored by Planned Parenthood in Milwaukee via Twitter.
Sen. Cornyn, R-TX, has said, “The Obama administration should stop this program immediately.”
Instead, federally funded navigators intend to continue beyond this year's enrollment deadline of March 31. Jennifer Frizzell, Planned Parenthood’s New Hampshire senior policy adviser, said, “We are funded through August 2014.” On April 1, they will begin “getting applicants ready for the process for the following year.”
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“We want to cut through that confusion and have them feel comfortable with making an accurate decision for their families,” she told local media.
Some of their activity is privately funded. Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey (PPMNJ) received a $94,697 grant from from The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey to promote ObamaCare in Essex County alone. The branch hopes to register 2,700 PPMNJ patients and 20,000 people in Newark for ObamaCare plans or Medicaid. Altogether, that represents an estimated 17 percent of the city's uninsured.
While polls show less than four-in-10 Americans support ObamaCare, Planned Parenthood remains undeterred.
“The Affordable Care Act is one of the greatest advancements for women’s health in a generation,” Cecile Richards said. “Planned Parenthood fought hard for the law’s passage, and in the last few weeks of this enrollment period, we’re working double time to make sure our patients and the communities we serve know about their new health care options.”