The 2014 expansion of the Medicaid coverage in Michigan will extend to adults who fall around the poverty line, particularly those few millions of inmates who also need medical care. Health officials believe that it could help lower the recidivism rate in the state by doing so.
This will also allow Michigan and other states to finance hospital and medical care of inmates in and outside the prison. According to Michigan officials, whose state has been an advocate to health care of inmates; this Medicaid expansion will be very influential in stopping recidivism or former inmates going back to their criminal activities.
There were earlier studies on anti-recidivism citing the help needed by former inmates in adjusting outside prison. Michigan in particular had used its funds to extend healthcare to inmates which resulted to less prison population, from 51,554 to 43,636, within five years.
Those released prisoners requiring special medical attention had lower recidivism rates by over 50 percent, from 50 percent to 22.5 percent during 1998-2012.
Tammy Meek, Gus Harrison Correctional Facility's Prisoner Reentry Coordinator, said in an interview with The Washington Post, "A significant number (of inmates) have never prepared their own meals. They don't know how to shop, or how to budget. Some can't even write their name in cursive. Health care is critical in protecting the public and giving the client (former inmate) the tools he needs to succeed."
"Having access to health care and mental health care contributes to their success in staying out of prison," Jackson's Charles E. Egeler correction facility warden, Heidi E. Washington, added.
However, not all officials are in favor of this Medicaid expansion. The Republican Congress does not seem to approve of it. Michigan Congressman Fred Upton had requested to revisit the impacts of this expansion.
They expressed their concern in a letter to the Government Accountability Office, "We must better understand the true costs of expanding the program to any new population and weigh such costs with the competing interests of our nation's most vulnerable law-abiding citizens."
