Posted by Dennis Fetzer on Wed, Aug 19, 2009 @ 10:10 AM
Are the almost 2.2 million inmates housed in city, county, state and federal prisons counted in the approximately 47 million uninsured? If they're not included, should they be?
Currently most federal and state laws state when an individual is incarcerated private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid are permitted/required to suspend coverage. There are some exceptions: inmates who are participating in a work release program may be able to retain their private insurance. Also, some elderly inmates that were determined to be handicapped because of drug or alcohol addiction may be able to keep Medicare or Medicaid. These inmates are very few in number. In most situations the correctional facility is responsible for covering all medical care costs.
Do any of the three bills in the House address this issue? What is in the Senate bill?
I haven't researched the bills yet but I'm wondering if they do include provisions for corrections and what those provisions entail.
If the federal government does start to cover inmates it would be a tremendous savings for the corrections industry since medical care eats up a large portion of the budget.
I'm curious to hear what you think.
I'm going to start researching the bills and to see what answers I can come up with; please do the same and hopefully we can help each other come up with what the possible impact will be. Here is a link to House Bill H.R. 3200:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090714/aahca.pdf