Universal Healthcare and the Incarcerated
May 2, 2023
Healthcare Reform
May 2, 2023
Happy Tuesday Healthcare Advocates
I’m very thankful for your advocacy for healthcare reform. If there are subjects you’d like to have researched, please send me a note using the comment box at the end of the newsletter.
UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE NEWS
On May 16th Congresswoman Jayapal and Senator Sanders will both present companion Universal Single Payer Healthcare bills in Congress. It is about time our country took this important step and joined the 35 other industrialized countries with Universal Healthcare. We can make this happen. Take the action below.
Here is a Quick Action
Call your Senators and Congressperson and tell them you want them to sponsor and vote for Universal Healthcare. You can find their phone numbers here or in the references below. The text can be easy. Try “ I am your constituent in zipcode_______. Congresswoman Jayapal and Senator Sanders are introducing Universal Healthcare legislation on May 16th. I want you to be a co-sponsor and to actively support it.”
Prison Healthcare Reform
I promised a colleague of mine that I would research healthcare in prisons. Here is an update.
Some background first. Healthcare in prisons can be an iffy proposition. Prisoners and those released from prison have higher rates of chronic illnesses like diabetes, hepatitis, and hypertension than those never incarcerated. People leaving incarceration face elevated health risks, including disproportionately higher rates of chronic conditions (such as diabetes, hepatitis, and hypertension), behavioral health diagnoses, as well as higher rates of overdose and suicide compared with people who have never been incarcerated. Additionally, if you’ve been incarcerated your life expectancy is lower than the general population.
The Supreme Court has ruled that prisons must not ignore the medical needs of prisoners. Many prisoners are eligible for Medicaid but until recently, there was an inmate exclusion in federal law that precluded Medicaid from being applied to prisoners except for hospitalization..
The Commonwealth Fund recently reported on some changes made by Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with respect to using Medicaid to help prisoners transition to community healthcare. States can now apply for so-called section 1115 Medicaid waivers to provide prerelease healthcare services to Medicaid eligible prisoners with a goal of improving health when they reenter the community. This is, of course, an experiment to determine if the post release health of the incarcerated can be improved by setting up pre-release care.
Treatment plans can be prepared before release, prisoners can be provided 30 days of medication in hand when they are released and doctors and providers identified for them to help ease the transition.
California already has received their waiver and more than a dozen other states have applied for waivers.
This is a complicated problem, for a number of reasons. Each state determines how medical care is provided to prisoners and they also determine how Medicaid will work in their state and what care is to be covered.
If the incarcerated could walk out into the population with healthcare automatically covered by Universal healthcare we wouldn’t have to build these complicated Medicaid work-arounds. They would just be insured and could have healthcare needs covered.
Ok you know what the answer is - go back to that action above and call your elected representatives.
Resources
Find My Elected Officials
Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact State and Federal Representatives https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/addr/
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare
Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Organizations to Contact
Physicians for a National Health Plan
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision
Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Save Democracy
Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Cravens
RESISTBOT
Link to the RESISTBOT site to learn more
Link to Chop Wood, Carry Water Resistbot write up