Maryland Seeks Federal OK To Speed Ex-Inmates’ Medicaid Access

(By Jay Hancock for Kaiser Health News)

Seeking to slash the red tape that keeps ex-prisoners with mental illness, drug addiction and other ailments from getting health coverage, Maryland is proposing to give thousands of newly released inmates temporary Medicaid membership with few questions asked.

The measure, described as the first of its kind in the nation, would help close a gap occurring when sick inmates leave jail or prison care but have trouble getting coverage and treatment after they get out, sometimes for months, advocates say.

Maryland expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, making nearly all ex-prisoners eligible for the state and federal health insurance program for low-income people. But enrollment bottlenecks have kept Maryland and other states from signing up more than a fraction of the people leaving incarceration. Read article here….

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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