06/04/2010

Representative Craig Eiland on UTMB Inmate Health Care

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State must pay for prison care
I’m asking my colleagues to join me in supporting a system for CMC that fully funds the Texas Department of Criminal Justice so that we’re not faced with the hard decision of laying people off and trying to cover constitutionally required basic care. UTMB no longer can be responsible for TDCJ’s costs when it is undergoing efforts to assure the Legislature that UTMB is or can be financially sound and viable into the future.
Interestingly, Representative Eiland's opinion piece allows us to do some fairly precise calculations. According to the article, UTMB treats about 120,000 prisoners. The cost is $9.54 per day per inmate. That's 120,000 x $9.54 x 365 for a total of almost $418 million. Now, UTMB watchers, we need to look on the state website and figure out how much the appropriation is for inmate care, and we also need to figure out how much the Texas Department of Criminal Justice gives UTMB for inmate care. If the total approaches $418 million, then either something is wrong with the calculation for the cost of inmate health care, or the bean counters are fudging. This will be an interesting little investigation.



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Jun 4, 2010 10:51:19 PM | UTMB

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