For incarcerated individuals, reintegration to society is often a daunting and difficult undertaking. State Rep. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) is hoping to make one key aspect of re-entry more accessible: health care.
Appearing before the legislature’s Committee on Health and Human Services on Wednesday, Talbot Ross explained how LD 761 would clarify Maine law to affirm MaineCare eligibility for incarcerated Mainers — who she noted are often low income and prone to significant health issues — and permit those individuals to appeal an insurer’s decision to deny coverage.
“This population has a disproportionately high rate of mental illness, substance use disorder and other health and physical disabilities,” she told the committee. “Simply creating a mechanism to allow these individuals to apply for Medicaid before they are released places them in a better position and could reduce recidivism by allowing care to continue in their communities immediately upon the release from a correctional facility.”
Specifically, the bill directs the state Department of Health and Human Services to assist eligible individuals to apply for coverage. This task, Talbot Ross noted, is often a huge hurdle for inmates for whom the ability to use the phone “is contingent on the ability to pay for the call,” while “computers and printers are not easily accessible.”
Maine currently has a policy that suspends Medicaid during incarceration and no outreach or assistance strategies to facilitate enrollment prior to release, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Many of those who also testified Wednesday highlighted the risk this poses for individuals with substance use disorder.
Tina Nadeau, executive director of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said she worries “about my clients who struggle with addiction, particularly in the hours and days following their release.”
“The risk of overdose,” Nadeau explained, “is particularly acute at that time. Without access to medicine assisted therapy — methadone, suboxone, etc. — to manage their symptoms, and after months of being clean on the inside, one dose, one shot can be the thing that kills them. I think about this a lot.”
Kathy Kilrain del Rio, policy analyst with Maine Equal Justice, agreed, saying it is “hard to overstate the importance of this strategy.”
“The adjusted rate of death among former inmates is 3.5 percent greater than among those not incarcerated,” Kilrain del Rio said. “This risk is particularly acute in the first two weeks following release. The leading causes of death among these former inmates are drug overdose, cardiovascular disease, homicide, and suicide.”
Talbot Ross pointed out that under current DHHS policy an individual can lose their health care “simply because they cannot afford bail,” noting that as much as 69 percent of the county jail population is pre-trial.
The state, she argued in a statement provided to Beacon, has both a moral and fiscal interest in making sure incarcerated Mainers can access health insurance upon release.
“Our commitment to providing high quality health care and equal access to health care coverage should not be any less while a person experiences incarceration,” she said. “We must ensure that the process to acquire or maintain coverage, utilize it to the maximum allowable benefits, or appeal decisions is available to all Mainers.”
(Photo: Thomas Hawk | Creative Commons via flickr)
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