Sen. Miller has introduced SB 212 which would, generally speaking, make the Department of Correction and County Sheriffs an inmate’s authorized representative for the purposes of applying for Medicaid benefits for unreimbursed medical expenses. The sheriffs and DOC would have to enter into an agreement with FSSA to pay FSSA for the state share of the Medicaid expenses.
Unfortunately the fiscal note is not yet available. I have a dim notion that this is designed to take advantage of additional federal money available to fund health care for inmates without making the state adjust the way in which it pays for health care.
The ironies in this bill are telling. You are right Dog, it is designed to suck money out of the federal treasury for an expense that should rightfully fall on the Indiana taxpayer. I would wonder, however, how many inmates would qualify for Medicaid. Indiana’s Medicaid eligibility rules are limited to the disabled, or the categorically eligible. There would be some of these people in prison, but likely not many.
The irony, of course, is Indiana will not take Medicaid money to cover the near poor and medically poor under the ACA. Pence wants the Oval Office so badly that he will let tens of thousand of Hoosiers suffer unnecessarily so he can get it. he has forgotten that most basic of Christ’s teachings: That which you do for the least of you, you do for me.
The ACA / Medicaid expansion legislation made some changes to how Medicaid treated (or potentially treated) inmates. Seems like under the old model maybe even otherwise eligible inmates got disqualified by their convictions. (Under the “deserving poor” theory of welfare, I presume). Under the new model that was changed somewhat — though I don’t remember exactly how or whether that was one of the things that required a state buy-in.
Dog, here is a detailed article about the ACA and prison inmates. Prior to the ACA, prisoners were excluded from Medicaid eligibility. “The inmate exception.” The ACA expanded eligibility for Medicaid to individuals up to 133% of poverty. (Formerly, “Medically eligible.”) Indiana did not accept federal funds to expand Medicaid as the ACA envisioned. But this class of individuals (<133% of poverty) may still be eligible for Medicaid.
http://www.americanjail.org/county-jails-and-the-affordable-care-act/
“Indiana did not accept federal funds to expand Medicaid as the ACA envisioned. ”
Which makes me wonder if the point of the bill is to, as Carlito says, suck money out of the *federal* treasury to alleviate the burden on the Indiana taxpayer … or instead suck money out of the Indiana taxpayer (aka, FSSA, Healthy Indiana, Hoosier Healthwise) to alleviate the burden on the DoC and the county sheriffs.
But I really don’t know. The ins-and-outs of low-income medical care & insurance in Indiana gives me a headache every time I think about it. :-(