Lake County, Ind. Inmates Getting Registered For Medicaid
(CBS) -- Inmates at the Lake County Jail in Indiana are getting registered for health care, something they couldn't do in the past.
The jail is signing up inmates for Medicaid. Due to federal law they can't receive the benefits directly, but now with the Affordable Care Act they can.
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"We are able to offset some of those really high county costs to the state and federal government through Medicaid dollars," said Mark Back with the Lake County sheriff's office.
Back says they estimate they'll be saving up to $700 thousand a year, because previously they had to eat up the cost of hospital stay for inmates.
So far at least 200 inmates have been signed up for the program.
