CWA: Against Medicaid Expansion, Says Women Can Rely On It For Repro Health

July 28, 2015

Today, at a rally to defund Planned Parenthood, the president of Koch-front group Concerned Women for America (CWA), Penny Nance, said women don’t need to rely on the group for healthcare and that “there’s certainly Medicaid for poor women.” Nance’s argument has a pretty big hole in it. Her organization’s main funders, the Koch brothers, are doing everything they can to gut Medicaid and hinder its expansion.

If the Kochs get their way, Medicaid won’t be a reliable source of healthcare for women or anyone else. The Kochs’ main political organization, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), has repeatedly attacked Medicaid. AFP has campaigned against Florida state lawmakers working to expand Medicaid to roughly 800,000 Floridians and continues to intimidate lawmakers in North Carolina to stop another 600,000 uninsured residents from receiving coverage. The Koch-funded group also supported Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget that would have cut $810 billion in Medicaid spending over 10 years.

On top of that, CWA itself has campaigned against Medicaid expansion in Ohio, Virginia, and Tennessee.

CWA has received $8.4 million in funding from Freedom Partners (A.K.A. the “Koch brothers’ secret bank”). CWA doesn’t have what is best for women in mind — it has what’s best for the Kochs in mind. CWA wouldn’t leave Medicaid intact because the Koch brothers don’t want it intact. Just like the Center for Medical Progress’s attacks on Planned Parenthood have been misleading and shady, Nance and CWA refuse to tell the whole truth. (Read Bridge Project’s full report on the group here.)

Paid for by American Bridge 21st Century Foundation