Signed Out Of Prison But Not Signed Up For Insurance, Inmates Fall Prey To Ills

INDIANAPOLIS — Before he went to prison, Ernest killed his 2-year-old daughter in the grip of a psychotic delusion. When the Indiana Department of Correction released him in 2015, he was terrified something awful might happen again.

He had to see a doctor. He had only a month’s worth of pills to control his delusions and mania. He was desperate for insurance coverage.

But the state failed to enroll him in Medicaid, although under the Affordable Care Act Indiana had expanded the health insurance program, making most ex-inmates eligible. Left to navigate an unwieldy bureaucracy on his own, he came within days of running out of the pills that ground him in reality.

Kara Salim, 26, got out of the Marion County, Indiana, jail in 2015. Without Medicaid coverage, she couldn’t afford the fees for court-ordered therapy to treat her bipolar disorder and alcoholism.

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