House Bill (HB) 464 proposes charging state prisoners a co-pay on every prescription from the prison dispensary that treats a passing illness, such as a cold. The bill excludes drugs for chronic conditions or pregnancy.   “It’s estimated that the cost of medication for our inmates this year will be in excess of $25 million. This is a way that they can pay a reasonable amount toward their healthcare,” bill author Rep. Barbara Massey Reece (D-Menlo) told a House State Institutions and Property Committee hearing.   She expects the fee would be $5 per prescription, though that’s ultimately up to the people in charge at each institution. Any inmate with less than $10 in their account wouldn’t be charged.

It won’t do much for the prison budget, but it may teach a “civics lesson,” according to Alan Adams, division director for health services at the department.  “The intent is for the inmates to shoulder some of the responsibility for their own healthcare, to make informed and adult decisions about when to access healthcare and when not to,” Adams testified to the committee, which approved the bill.  Most cold medicines and the like are prescribed after a prisoner initiates a sick call and is taken to the prison doctor. That call is already subject to a $5 co-pay.   “This will further discourage a malingerer or an inmate without a real problem from going to medical,” Adams said.  The co-pay could net the Department of Corrections some $1.8 million a year, according to their own calculations …

The more radical bill is House Bill 295, which would impound prisoners’ property on the outside to pay their medical bills.   It would also charge a $40 per Diem for a prison stay – $14,600 per year. The state’s average cost per prisoner per day was $46.27 as of March 2008.   Right now, the bill language excludes prisoners who are ruled unable to pay by a judge.