From Prison Policy Initiative:
Last month, the federal government approved an important new rule that makes people on probation or parole, out on bail, or living in a halfway house eligible to receive Medicare benefits. Medicare is the federal health insurance program for people who are age sixty-five or older or who have certain disabling medical conditions. Under this new rule, more than 340,000 people over the age of 65 who are on probation or parole, along with countless others who are under other forms of community supervision, will now qualify for Medicare.
Medicare does not provide care for people who are “in custody.” However, prior to this rule change, Medicare’s definition of “in custody” was much broader than the average person would assume. Rather than applying only to people behind bars, it also applied to anyone who was on bail, probation, parole, in a halfway house, or otherwise under the supervision of correctional authorities but not necessarily behind bars — excluding them from accessing health insurance benefits from the program.
The federal government based its previous Medicare policy on the flawed notion that people on community supervision received medical care from a correctional authority, which we heard time and time again is not the case. Prisons and jails often don’t provide adequate care to people behind bars, and they certainly don’t provide it to people living in the community. Continue reading >>>
|
|
|
|
