Reproductive Health Advocates

The Uncertain Future of Tapestry Health April 20, 2009

From the April 16, 2009 Edition of the Valley Advocate

Tapestry Health may well be one of the best models for the future of American health care, at least in the sense that it has been very successful in its street-level, community-based approach to servicing populations in need. Founded in 1973 as the Family Planning Council, the organization has focused primarily on reproductive health, but has also by extension branched out into areas of public health such as psychological counseling and the spearheading of a pioneer needle exchange program in Northampton, one of four such programs launched in Massachusetts in the mid-’90s. Now in its 13th year, the exchange, while controversial, has proven to be a significant success.

Despite its sterling record of real-world functionality and statistically demonstrated efficacy, this organization, too, has found much of its funding in the crosshairs of Beacon Hill budget-slashers. Tapestry reports that on January 28, 2009, “Governor Deval Patrick released his recommendations for the FY 2010 budget year, recommending over 68 percent in cuts to statewide comprehensive family planning services funded in the Department of Public Health (DPH) budget. This recommendation is in addition to the governor cutting these services by 16 percent this year in October through his 9C powers [see Fig. 2 for detailed numbers]. This cut will eliminate services to over 98,000 low-income women, men and adolescents who are uninsured and underinsured and dismantle the program’s 70 sites statewide.” The organization tries to add some straight-up fiscal logic to its plea for funding as well, citing data that shows that “every $1 invested saves over $4 in Medicaid costs for prenatal and newborn care.”

According to a recent report by ABC-Channel 40’s Shannon Hegy, “the budget cuts have already forced Tapestry Health to suspend its family planning services at its locations in Great Barrington, Athol and North Adams,” a sobering fact confirmed by Tapestry Health President Leslie Tarr Laurie. And Tapestry is also moving its headquarters.

Laurie has some hope that a bit of federal money will begin to help offset the dramatic state cuts, though such systemic changes will likely take a while to enact as the new administration sniffs out all the leaks and prepares to patch whichever ones it can. At the time she spoke to the Advocate, she was leading an effort to lobby folks to voice concerns, via a public comment period, to try to change some Bush-era “conscience regulations.” These were put into place to try to force entities like family planning organizations to hire people who fundamentally disagree with their positions on several key issues—a sort of imposed quota system—to assure that agents of socially conservative agendas could infiltrate the groups and perhaps run interference on controversial services or procedures.

Tapestry employs about 120 workers in the Valley, and all of them have been scrambling to continue providing services with fewer and fewer resources.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to have some private beneficiaries who strongly believe in our mission,” Laurie acknowledged. “Without them, we’d be in much worse shape.” Still, she admits that like all the nonprofits in the state, Tapestry is anxious about the approach of July 1, the beginning of the state’s fiscal year and the moment of truth when the actual budget is rolled out for public inspection.

“The federal fiscal year turns around in October,” Laurie notes. “That leaves a lot of organizations worried about what you do from July to October if your state funding’s been cut.”