Think about it—you pay for Obamacare (or your employer pays), you have high deductibles ($1,000-$2,000), you pay for a big portion of your dental care, and you even pay for co-pays ($25-$60) each time you have one of your kid’s ears checked for a winter infection. Would you agree to free health care for criminals?

Most of us would scream:  NO!!

But this is exactly what’s happening with our bulging prison population.  Let’s look at a few statistics first.  In 1925, we had a prison population of about 100,000 people.  Granted, our over all population grew a lot since then, but by 2012 our population had swelled to 2.4 million people—more than almost any other country in the world.  In 2010 the U.S. spent $80 billion dollars on corrections.  From 1982 to 2006, the costs of corrections rose +660%!!  Which included free health care for these criminals.

(Courtesy of Vichaya Kiatying-Angsulee at Freedigitalphoto.com)

Wait—it gets worse.  The majority of prisoners now serving time are not violent offenders—they are drug users and offenders.  Not necessarily the drug “king pins” either.  This population which is serving long and sometimes, life, sentences is aging rapidly.  By 2020 it’s estimated that in California alone, prisoners over 55 will make up 16% of the population.  If we multiply that times the 2.4 million now in custody, we arrive at 384,000 elderly prisoners five years from now.  And growing . . .

So, what about the free health care for criminals?

Remember that each of these prisoners cannot apply for Medicare or Medicaid.  The state and federal taxpayers pay for every dollar of health care for each prisoner.  As they age, you can imagine what kinds of expensive care they require: hip replacements, knee replacements, diabetes, dialysis, cancer care, radiation, chemo, Alzheimer care, physical rehab services, eye surgeries for cataracts, and all the other types of health care elderly people need.  Think about your own parents or friend’s parents.

None of these prisoners has a deductible cost they must pay, they don’t pay health care premiums, and they don’t even pay a few bucks for the co-pays that the rest of us have to pay.

Is this fair?  These people have committed crimes against the public and now, the public has to pay for them to have healthy lives.  But, some argue, what about the fact that they’re “still human” and deserve to be just as cared for as anyone else?

For an interesting perspective, read Theresa Brown’s great column in the New York Times (she’s a nurse who cares for prisoners) at:  http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/?_r=0

What do you think about free health care for criminals?  Even if they’ve not been convicted and are awaiting trial in jail, they still get free health care if necessary.  Is this fair to the rest of us?