Too bad it is a county in the State of Oregon deferring costs on all of America.
Obamacare will change the way Multnomah County pays for jail inmates’ medical treatment
Backers have promoted the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion as a way to reduce health care costs for many Americans.
Multnomah County officials expect national health care reform to cut the county’s medical bills, too.
By enrolling jail inmates in nationally subsidized healthcare — best known as “Obamacare” to both the President and his critics — the county could bill the federal government for the cost of providing some of them medical care.
County health department officials briefed Multnomah County commissioners on the issue this week.
In addition to saving the county money, enrolling inmates in Obamacare would also mean a significant percentage will now have insurance when their jail stay is done.
Great, except that anyone with an IQ high enough to understand that putting their finger in their own eye hurts knows that what County is doing is entering the inmates into the Medicaid system.
So the good folks of say, Texas, will be paying for the shiv wound received by a Portland area convicted rapist.
So enjoy that.
Wonder how that works when they arrest somebody that already has insurance. I suspect that the prisoner will be liable for medicaid fraud, if he chooses to exercise his right to remain silent. Or liable for huge medical bills if he speaks up.
That would be my Multnomah County. Sheriff Dan Staton supports gun control too, so its safe to say he is not a “Constitutional” Sheriff. He is, however, a former CPA, and has a bean-counter view of his office. Since he was hammered (again) by the auditor for excessive jail-deputy overtime expense, he has been looking for more funding, and Jail Medical is a huge expense, so each dollar he can cut from that budget line can go into “solving” his overtime woes.
Does Obamacare and/or Medicaid cover burials? I could see an increase in that one…