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Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Inmates getting coverage under ObamaCare, as states shift cost to feds

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration often touts that people with pre-existing conditions and countless others can now get covered under ObamaCare. But there's another group that's starting to benefit from the law -- prison inmates.

Cash-strapped state and local prisons increasingly are using the Affordable Care Act to pay for their inmates' medical costs, taking advantage of a little-known provision that lets them shift some of those expenses to the federal government.

Ohio, Illinois and Iowa are among the states trying to offload the rising costs of health care – which include mental health programs – by enrolling inmates into a new expanded Medicaid program when they get sick.

But it doesn't stop there. The states also are working to enroll them even before they're released from prison, so they have coverage when they get out.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone with a pre existing condition can't get coverage now if they already haven't. They have to wait until the "open enrollment period" in November. They won't be covered even then until Jan 2015. This is to prevent those from just signing up when they need hospitalization or their condition is flaring up or worsening and they will need medical care.

Anonymous said...

Go to jail and get anything u need.

Anonymous said...

i hope the liberals that voted for this garbage are the first to experience the pain, but alas, they won't.
does anybody think for a second that health care costs will go down now that the feds control it?
remember the $1,000 toilet seat?
how about the billions we spend on "national defense?"
this is so crazy what is happening.
good luck to those that created this mess.