County Looks to Federal Health Care Reform to Reduce Reoffenders

08.18.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Under current law, inmates’ Medicaid benefits are canceled immediately when they’re booked into jail, and Salt Lake County is thinking about asking the federal government to change this.  County Councilman Jeff Allen, who serves on the National Association of Counties’ Justice and Public Safety steering committee, says now is the right time for the request because of the current focus on health care reform.

“The proposal is that their Medicaid not necessarily drop the second that they are booked into jail,” Allen says, “but that they can hold onto that, and that they can just have it be suspended while they’re in the jail system so that once they’re released it is automatically reactivated so that they can get their medication that day.”

Allen says it can take three to six weeks for former inmates to reapply for Medicaid after they get out. During this time, he says they’re at a higher risk of reoffending, especially those with mental health issues.

Allen says it’s in the county’s best interest to ensure these former inmates remain healthy after they’re released.

“A healthy society is a society that can get up and go to work better, that can find jobs easier, they’re more easily motivated, continues to have some positive hope for their future,” Allen says. “And those who have mental illnesses, if they go without their medications, often times end up reoffending.”

Today, the county council will consider whether to sign a letter requesting the change. If approved, it will be sent to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Utah’s Congressional Delegation, the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the White House Office of Health Reform.