Kansas Inmate Health Care Costs Soaring
Prison health care costs are soaring in Kansas as once experimental drugs and procedures are becoming standard treatments. From Fox 4Kc.
The Kansas Department of Corrections spent $46.5 million in the most recent fiscal year on inmate health care, up 116 from 2000. Health care now totals 17 percent of the department’s total operating costs.
Secretary of Corrections Roger Werholtz said HIV and hepatitis C were once considered terminal illnesses. But now, he says people are being managed with those illnesses for extended periods of time. And he says the department is obligated to extend that care when medically indicated.
There is no reason to think the prison health care costs are liking to decrease as the prison population ages and their health needs increase.
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