Obamacare enrollment numbers have fallen so short of the Obama administration’s anticipated goal that the government has begun enrolling America’s most upstanding citizens--our incarcerated population--and picking up the tab for it, too.
Albany County, New York Sheriff Craig Apple has pushed hard for prisoners to enroll in Obamacare. He says it’s a win-win situation for inmates and taxpayers. Apple told WRGB that taxpayers will only be forced to pay once for inmates’ medical bills- through their federal taxes, not in addition to their county taxes. Sheriff Apple said that there are around 400 inmates eligible to enroll in Obamacare.
WRGB interviewed Trevaughn Banks, an inmate set to be released from the Albany correctional facility next month. After his release, he will be an official Obamacare enrollee.
"I don’t want to have to [pay] out of pocket every time I need to take a trip to the doctor or emergency room," Banks explained.
He said that prisoners deserve healthcare.
Banks railed against individuals who don’t want to provide inmates with health insurance. "This is a fair country, we have a fair country, so for people to say that is not fair," he said.
Banks will leave the Albany correctional facility with a bright future ahead: he will be enrolled in Obamacare and have a potential shot at employment: a possible job as a navigator. Recall that Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) that it is "possible" for a convicted felon to work as an Obamacare navigator and for the felon to obtain sensitive personal information from an individual, completely unbeknownst to them. That must have been the "win-win situation for inmates and taxpayers" Sheriff Apple was referring to.