As part of the Arizona legislature's campaign to turn the state's prison system into a cash cow for corporations, Republicans passed laws in 2009 to privatize prison medical care.
They've certainly cut costs; although it hasn't worked out too well for the new providers, and especially not for the prison inmates, some of whom have suffered, been disfigured, even died from lack of care.
The legislature already had a prison medical care system that was lacking in staff. But when the privatization laws passed, workers left en masse, expecting to be replaced. And the private contractors found the reimbursement rates too low. Let the free market rule, eh?
From the Arizona Republic article:
In the fiscal year ending last June, Corrections spent $111.3 million, or an average of $3,258 per inmate, on health care, down 27 percent from $140.5 million, or an average of $4,482 per inmate, two years earlier.
If only this was the result of greater efficiency, but no. Inmates just aren't being treated -- the system went from bad to worse, working slowly to even slower. The stories touched on in the article are horrific: a diabetic who lost most of his sight waiting for insulin. An epileptic suffering seizures for lack of medication. Untreated cancerous growths leading to disfiguring amputations later. An inmate who committed suicide and bled out for over 20 minutes while officers, untrained in suicide prevention, stood by.
I'm no expert, but perhaps they should have considered stopping the bleeding. Is it any wonder the suicide rate in Arizona's prisons is twice the national average? It's a travesty. Certainly puts my adventures in health insurance in perspective, to consider the waiting times for treatment in prison, even after the department of corrections has taken steps to address them.
In April, 23 percent of positions were unfilled. As of the end of November, 22 percent were unfilled, according to staffing reports.
Ryan said the department also has reduced the waiting time for inmates who require medical treatment outside the prisons -- from an average of 77 days early last year to an average of 49 days as of this month.
So the department of corrections denies systemic problems, and they demand that humanitarian organizations like the Prison Law Office name names of inmates, putting these folks under threat of retaliation. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. I don't know what I would do in their place.
Suffer and die, I suppose. The typical Republican strategy for health care in this country.
5:13 PM PT: Thanks for the rescue - I appreciate the attention paid to this issue, I really think it deserves it.