Family planning is the sacred cow of the Buncombe County Health Department. I concluded this from reading their new schedule of fees and charges, also to be approved with the commissioners’ consent agenda. I also concluded “family planning” doesn’t mean determining when enough will be set aside for Junior’s braces, like it did when I was a kid.
The text has been sitting around for awhile, and it is not part of the proposed revisions. I call it to your attention because I’m still naïve, supposing health clinics exist for the kids of poor people who suddenly contract measles. I suppose we use emergency rooms for that, now.
Anyway, on page 5 we read that care will not be provided for clientele with delinquent accounts, except for family planning and STD services. What’s more, the county residency requirement will be waived for persons seeking family planning or AIDS testing. Family planning services can be paid on a sliding scale, and teenagers requesting confidential family planning will have their income calculated as if they are the sole head of household. The best part, from page 18, is:
If clients report false information, they will no longer be allowed to use the sliding scale, except for Family Planning service fees.
