NPR - For years, [young] people have often been left to fend for themselves when seeking health care services after their release from jail, prison, or other carceral facilities. Despite this population's high rate of mental health problems and substance use disorder, they often return to their communities with no coverage, which increases their chances of dying, or suffering a lapse that sends them back behind bars.
A new federal law aims to better connect incarcerated children and young adults who are eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program to services before their release. The goal is to help prevent them from developing a health crisis or reoffending as they work to reestablish themselves....
Medicaid has historically been prohibited from paying for health services for incarcerated people. So jails, prisons, and detention centers across the country have their own systems for providing health care, often funded by state and local budgets and not integrated with a public or private health system.
The new law is the first change to that prohibition since the Medicare and Medicaid Act's inception in 1965, and it came in a spending bill signed by President Joe Biden in 2022. It took effect Jan. 1 this year, and requires all states to provide medical and dental screenings to Medicaid- and CHIP-eligible youths 30 days before or immediately after they leave a correctional facility. Youths must continue to receive case management services for 30 days after their release.
More than 60% of young people who are incarcerated are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, according to a September 2024 report from the Center for Health Care Strategies. The new law applies to children and young adults up to age 21, or 26 for those who ...were in foster care.
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